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positive discipline
How to Encourage Skills Practice
The school year is coming to a close. Some of us have children who are not quite on par with society's academic standards, and this can be a cause for concern. On the one hand, we want them to relax during the summer. On the other hand, we know the value of consistent practice to master skills that don't come naturally.
I live this struggle with my son, so I decided to set an expectation of summer writing practice to ensure he continues making progress. I had a conversation with him, and it…
Raising Creative Problem-Solvers
Do you constantly referee children's disagreements? Do you tend to side with one child, frustrating the other? Or do you offer solutions, only to be ignored? If you're nodding in response to any of these questions, then read on!
The scenario:
My 4.5-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son share a room. It's the only place in the house where they're allowed to play LEGOs, so the plastic pieces don't take over our living room/homeschool area. Both kids love LEGOs, but my older son likes to li…
The Entitlement Myth
We gave him the benefit of a doubt: Surely he was just imitating his older classmates' rude behaviors. Or maybe this was a misguided attempt at being more independent. All my friends' children were acting the same way, so it was probably a developmental phase. Re…
Safe Haven
A recent visitor from Russia gifted our classroom with a truly exquisite set of nesting dolls, the smallest of which was no larger than the fingernail on my pinky. All the children were curious about the dolls, but Annie, a nine-year-old who was new to our classroom, was truly enamored by the set. Between academic activities, she would spend time lining up the dolls and then nesting them again.
I was absent for a few hours on Tuesday morning, and by Wednesday three boys made the discovery that …
Manic Brain
Try This At Home
At a recent parent education meeting at the school where I work, we asked parents to share their parenting challenges and provided some Montessori-based tools that can help bridge the gap between school and home. It can be confusing for a child to move between two sets of expectations: punishment at home vs. consequences at school; praise at home vs. acknowledgment at school; one set of limits at home and another at school... When the expectations at school and at home are similar, the child wi…
Say It and Mean It
Do you know someone who makes promises (be they good or bad) and never delivers? How do you feel about that person? When we use empty promises or threats to get our children to comply, in their eyes we become that person.
Sure, manipulation works really well. But only for a while. And it comes at a terrible cost: your child's willingness to trust and believe you.
What would happen if we were forced to follow through on every single promise and threat we made to our children? We'd pay a lot m…
Show & Tell
Parents who are new to Montessori often observe a classroom and think: "My child would never fit in. …
Ca-ching!
Fellow Montessori mom and friend Amy, over at Positively Montessori, shares her experiences with the Positive Discipline approach to parenting. Every week she addresses a new topic and discusses how it's been working at her household with her 6-yr. old daughter and 15-month old son.
Here's a post on helping children understand the value of money. It offers some great ideas that take the power struggle out of buying toys, teach through natural consequences, and highlight the joy of giving.
Do y…
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