Daily Mass with Four Children

In the morning I sleepily roll out of bed and slip on some shoes to drive my husband to work at 6:30 in the morning so that I can have the car for the day. It is a nice drive, and sometime soon I hope I will be completely ready for the sun by the time we have to leave the house. The lady who helps me around the house (part maid part nanny and all a joy), stays while we quietly slip out so as not to wake the children. All of this is orchestrated so that the girls and I can go to mass in the morning.

Nothing can make going to mass early in the morning with four children truly easy. My little ladies are more than capable of behaving well. Lately however, with the new early mass time, I have had many complaints and a lot less consistency. Because I am desperate for something to motivate them to behave, I have made up a reward chart. It will be a laminated card that fits in our mass bag. On one side is a list of things they should always remember to do at mass. On the the other side each of their names is listed with images of little girls praying; one image for each day of the week. When they behave well they may put a star sticker on top of that day's image. If they get 7 stars they get donuts on Monday after mass.

So the little voice inside my head-put there by some "expert" out there- that say's "don't reward with food" will just have to be quiet. After all it isn't just the donut, but the event of picking them out and eating them together and having fun.

I uploaded the file to Scribd in case anyone wants to use it or copy and modify it. There are two pages which need to be printed and then laminated back to back. Once it is laminated you can get reusable stickers which will come off easily. I am not 100%happy with the way it looks, but I am trying to overcome my perfectionist ways and get something done.

I go to Mass Card

**Credit for the picture goes to Neumann Press, and I am unsure of the artist. Some of you may recognize it as the cover illustration for a book titled...surpirse... I Go to Mass.