This week I have been asking myself if I have put forth my best effort to train H in different areas or if we just laid out expectations for him without training him how to accomplish it. We often tell our kids what to do or not do, but are we taking the time to walk them through, to show them what we are asking of them?
So we did potty training over 2 years ago. Now we need to do retraining of some bad habits. One area that needs some training for H is how to NOT pee on the bathroom floor. Seriously, I am over stepping in puddles when I walk in the bathroom. Also to WASH his grubby little hands after he is done. Ahh, I won't go into detail on this one, but just know that some reminder training will be happening here.
The real area that I am aiming (ha, aiming would be for the first area of training.... but I digress) to work on training for H is the Golden Rule. A few days ago, H bit his sister's finger and then hours later dropped a stroller on her. Both of which seemed totally out of character for him. When I asked him how he would like it if I dropped a stroller on him, he said, "I wouldn't like it very much!" Not that I would ever show him what that would be like. But asking the question really helped him realize what he had just done. So how do I get him to ask himself the question BEFORE the offense happens? I realized that we have not really trained him on what it means to consider others better than himself (which I feel like is one step beyond the Golden Rule). H is usually a kind kid, thoughtful of others, but truly thinking of others first is not at the forefront of his mind.
I have some ideas for our training time, but I would love to hear if you have any ideas, book recommendations, games and such to drive this point home. I will gather all resources and will post soon on our training plan.
Would love your help : )
:) This was my biggest challenge in my classroom.. getting kids to think before they do is quite tricky. I'll look through my books and see if I remember any that are good for this specific area. I think modeling or thinking-aloud how you treat them and how you treat "Mr. Steady" can help them start to have an internal dialogue about it. I remember with one class, I was constantly saying things like "I don't want to make someone feel bad, because I know how much I don't like to feel bad, so I'm going to try to be life-giving." We used the terms life-giving or life-taking when we looked at book characters and how they treated others. Just a few thoughts from a rambling post-teacher pre-mom! :) Love ya friend!
ReplyDeleteHey I stumbled upon this website/blog.. looks like they have good insight on all things parental, interesting ideas on their blog too. Not necessarily about this topic, just thought I'd post it here. :) http://www.pritchardministries.org/
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