“Put the phone up to your ear.”

A little girl in the neighborhood called Lizzy this morning.  She wanted to play.  Lizzy put her on speaker and took the phone in her room.  My husband, who was in the next room, periodically would call me in and laugh.  “She’s telling her to do her jobs.”  He chortled.

I overheard the girl saying, “Put the phone up to your ear.  Do your jobs!  Do your jobs!”  Lizzy has a list of jobs she’s suppose to do everyday.  But the rub is – she hates me to tell her what to do.  And since she is often happy enough playing by herself or with one of her siblings she isn’t always motivated by a reward of playing with friends in the neighborhood.

This summer we started off with a job list and reward board.  She chose the rewards!  They varied from a Japanese eraser for 6 points to Six Flags for I can’t remember how many, probably for a month’s worth of jobs.  She could earn six points a day.  I think she earned 8 points and decided to stop.  Maybe I should have made it cumulative.  Maybe I’ll try that.

But when kids come over to play with Lizzy not infrequently the first question they ask Lizzy is, “Have you done your practicing?”