I would like to thank all of the parents who were able to attend our recent Coffee and Conversation about Freedom and Responsibility. I hope all of you enjoyed our discussion and found it to be beneficial for you and your family. We discussed many issues but primarily focused on how all adults can offer opportunities for guiding children with their own development of self inner discipline within any community they may encounter. I handed our several hand-outs about these topics for both the primary and elementary level students. Here are just a few guidelines and resources we discussed to help you get started.
1. Prepare you child’s environment so that they can easily and freely work without much adult’s assistance.
2. Let the child learn from their own mistakes.
3. Make sure you use household items and toys for their true intentional purpose.
4. When appropriate, offer real choices for the children to develop their decision making skills.
5. Avoid the reward and punishment methods.
6. Evaluate each situation before reacting, for children can sometimes solve problems themselves.
7. Show children how to work and how to respect everything and everyone in any environment.
The following are a few books and web-sites to help guide you with this effort.
“How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way” by Tim Seldon
“Love and Logic-Keeping Cool When Parenting Heats Up” by Dr. Charles Fay
www.positivediscipline.com
