Awareness Brag

I have a story for you. The funny thing is that under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be encouaraged. AT ALL!

As I've said before, Elise has a behavior chart at school...It is traveling path with cars. As one might guess, it involves light colors, Green being a great day, Yellow being a day with a few little issues, and a Red day results from having one with either a couple of really bad choices or lots of little bad choices. Elise, at the beginning of the year, got Orange added to her day because she was going through too fast. (They can earn backwards, too, if there were no safety issues that needed to be driven home.)

Every day after school, she gets asked by me how her day was. At first, she didn't "get" it at all. Then, she had the final color put on her hand so she could remember. Now, she remembers and can mostly tell you what happened. (Well, in a word association game kind of way..)

Yesterday, I asked her how her day was and she chirps "GREEN day!!" and then skips and tells me "----, YELLOW day!!!" At first I missed it and was not properly enthusiastic, so she repeated herself, that her friend had a Yellow day...and I exclaimed that she should not rat out her friends...but the more I thought on it, the more pleased I was...in fact, even her teacher encouraged her in being observant...and it kinda threw me for a second. But honestly, being aware of oneself, and being aware of the comparison with someone else, is a developmental milestone. As usual, it's one that usually occurs when kids are tiny, but it is that awareness that leads to proper social interchanges. WHICH IS WHAT WE ARE WORKING ON!!!

So my brag this week? Elise knew what her own behavior was. Not only that? She knew what her friend's behavior was. Not only that? She knew that her day was better than her friend's day. AND she was proud of herself! After such a bumpy start, this is wonderful news! It gives me hope that she will continue to understand the impact of her decisions, and that the extrapolation of comparing her behaviors to others will result in her mimicking the positive behaviors.

WHEW!! The things I never thought I'd get excited about!! :)