Positive Discipline

Part of the requirements for Buddy Boy's school is that all of the parents who work in the classroom take the Positive Discipline in the classroom workshops offered at the school before the classroom/playground work starts.  While the focus of the workshops is the classroom all of the things that we are learning can definitely be applied to kids (and others) at home.

The books that the workshop is based on are Positive Discipline by Jane Nelson and Parent Effectiveness Training by Thomas Gordon.  The approaches are similar with a lot of overlap so they have been combined into a school based class and a home focused class that I will need to take later.

I thought it would be helpful for me to review what I have been learning so I'll post little things that I find the most helpful.  You can check out the books for the full deal.

Here goes...

Connection before correction

This one is pretty self explanatory.  Correction is received better if it comes from someone you have a positive connection with.  At school this means get to know the kids in the class and the kids that frequent your assigned playground area at recess before you need to correct them on something.  At home, you already know your kids and their names, but if you have had plenty of positive interactions and a solid relationship base the corrections will be better received.  This reminds me to have some time each day where I have some happy time with each kid where I listen to them and do something with them.  I don't think it needs to be long, but even a few minutes will do a lot.