I love these excerpts from ‘The Playcentre Way’ which is an old (1980?) book by Alisa Densem, and thought I'd share them.
‘Children can be exposed to an enormous number of concepts simply with a word, a question, or a sensitive comment. Such as:
Can you tell me about …?
What do you think about ….?
Tell me more.
How do you explain that?
What do you think?
Wonder what would happen if?
How can we do?
Could we build this with this?
Lets see if – Lets’ find out.
How does is feel?
Shall we try?
______________
Make necessary limits. Children accept limits from people who genuinely care for them. It takes time to build up trust. Every adult is responsible for not permitting a child to act in undesirable ways such as hurting others, or taking things from others, or being destructive. It is unwise to disregard unacceptable behaviour, such as hitting another child, in the hope that the situation will right itself. WE help the aggressor in the long run by stopping his behaviour on the stop where it occurs in a matter-of-fact way. We can say "no" so that he child knows we mean it, without resorting to physical punishments ourselves. We may take away the stick he has used to hit with, or the toy he has misused. He may protest, he may resist, he may be angry with us. He has the right to feel any way he wishes, but he doesn’t not have the right to act in any way he wishes. We are helping him to learn the difference between the inner world of feelings, where behaviour must be limited and controlled.
Raw Cauliflower Salad
14 years ago
6 comments:
Good words. I'm always telling my kids that it's OK to feel angry or frustrated, but not OK to act on it in a mean way. Someday I think they'll get it :)
Great advice! Have a good day :)
Gypsy you are rekindling my love of playcentre. I've read that book, but obviously not carefully enough as those comments are fresh and new to me.
A great way to look at and apply positive discipline. I always have trouble coping with my toddler's hitting and acting out. Thank you for these tips and encouragement!
I've been watching my playcentre with intrest....and a bit of confusion.
I've been slowing reading the books and I know that there are many other mothers there who have read the same books...but they must not of READ the books. Oh well so goes in some does not.
But playcentre is just soooo great and wish that more people would do it rather than hide away from their kids in day care.
I love these open ended questions. I will have to see if my library has a copy of this book.
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