Do-it-yourself: Behavior Meter

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My kids have been driving me crazy lately. Isn’t that the case for all stay-at-home moms? I have been trying to figure out how to help them stay on track. I wonder if their bad behavior is more of a habit. I want to change their bad behavior, the constant fighting, talking back and laziness. We have tried a behavior chart but found that after we give a star for good behavior, they started being bad or talking back. I needed something different that could be moved easily. I created this behavior meter over the weekend and so far, so good! Let me explain how it works:

Each child has a clothespin with their name on it.
Everyone starts on green in the morning.
Green=Good
Yellow=Warning, watch out!
Red=Bad, extra chores, no TV, games, etc.

Pretty simple, right? If you act up I may tell you to move your pin to yellow. Talk back or yell at me? Go to red. Do not pass go, do not collect $200! :)

Here is how I made my board:

Supplies:

Foam board
Something to make red, green and yellow…..I used felt, you can use paper or even markers
Ribbon scraps..I used this to cover my seams for color changes and to make a hanger on the back
Hot Glue
Clothespins

Directions:

Cut foam board into a rectangle. Mine is 6″ x 15″. Make sure the length is divisible by 3 to make it easier to get the same size areas for each color.
I measured each 5 inches on the board and drew lines to help me see exactly where my felt would need to cover.
I cut my felt slightly larger than each square I needed to allow wrap around. The yellow will need to be the exact height of your square, but a little longer on the sides.
Glue felt or paper in place. If you are using markers or paint, simply color the areas of green, yellow and red.
At this point I used a little extra ribbon I had to cover my seams. I just hot glued in place.
Cut a piece of ribbon about 10 inches in length. Glue one end to the top, back of the board. Fold over and glue again. This will be how you hang your board on the wall.
When I went to hang my board, I noticed it was flush with the wall, making it hard to move pins. I cut 2 small squares of foam board and glued them to the back to help keep it just slightly off the wall.