A new reward chart

Everyone who follows my updates on this blog will know by how now how much of a hard time I have sometimes trying to get T to eat. Last night, I made him what I perceived to be his favourite meal, cous-cous only to have him turn up his nose at it saying he was not hungry. He wanted the pop-corn he had spotted in the kitchen earlier of course instead but didn't dare say it. Anyway I didn't say a word, I simply put his food in a takeaway plate and put him to bed almost soon afterwards. Around 11pm he woke up and was screaming his head off for no apparent reason. When I asked what was wrong, he wouldn't say so I had no option but to tell him to go back to sleep and stop fussing. About 30 mins afterwards he settled down and went back to sleep so I went to bed. Moments later, he was up and crying again and the worst part was he wasn't saying what was wrong so had no option but to wait it out till he settled. The trend continued for the most part of the night until at 3:45AM when he woke up crying again, I had an eureka moment. I fetched the food I had put away earlier, told him to sit eat in bed and surprise, surprise he started chowing down. When he was done, he went back to sleep, never to wake until 8AM. As I laid back down to sleep after the whole drama, I started thinking of what to do. By morning I had come up with an idea of a reward chart that incorporates good eating habits with good behaviour.  Everytime he eats a decent portion of his meal, he gets 2 stars in his favourite colour, yellow. When he is good he gets a green star. When he is horrid or naughty or doesn't eat a decent portion of his meal, he gets a star in the colour he is least keen on, orange. At the end of the end, the amount of stars he has amassed in each category is totaled and the figure from the subtraction of the orange stars from yellow and green stars determine if he receives his favorite treat of "Haribo" or not the next day at lunch time. A total of +5 and above in favour of good behaviour equals a whole Haribo mini-bag; anything between +1 and +4 equals that number in single Haribo gummies; and anything below 0 means a good talking to at bedtime and no Haribo gummies. In addition to learning the life lesson of rewarding good behaviour, I hope having him present while we count and add up his numbers at night will aid his number and counting skills. Just yesterday I was sitting watching him play with a peg board and I was stunned when he counted each peg as he picked it up to stick in the board up to 15. He is remarkably clever and ever since I explained the reward chart to him this morning, has been on his best behaviour. He is on 4 yellow and 1 green star so far, and no oranges so fingers crossed.