Wednesday, April 8, 2009

discipline and routine


I have been watching some Supernanny lately and thinking about discipline and routine. I have been wondering about the routine that I establish in Charlotte's life, and really wondering about discipline and at what age children understand. I think that I have been really easy going about everything because I tell myself that she doesn't understand. However, watching the families on the show I am realizing that it would probably be beneficial to Charlotte (and me) to implement some routine in our life. We have a vague routine, and she is changing all the time, so I don't think I can set our day to a strict schedule. But, I do want to have more engaged play with Charlotte throughout the day. And set aside time for music and stories. I also want to encourage imaginative play. She has gotten into the habit of grabbing our glasses, and this is the one thing that I have really said "no" to. I am trying to have a low voice, different from my regular voice, but not loud. I really want to create an environment in our home that she can explore comfortably, so I am not saying "no" all the time. I also think that spending a lot of time playing with your kids provides them the attention they need so that there is less chance they will get into things they are not supposed to, for the purpose of getting attention.

Anyway.... how do YOU deal with discipline? How young did you start? Or what do you think about this topic, even if you do not have children? Do you follow a routine throughout your day? I would love to get some responses on this one! Let's share ideas!

1 comment:

  1. I'm personally not very good at self discipline. I have good intensions a lot of the time but I am very vulnerable to my emotional ups and downs. For example, yesterday I got up with Tim early in the morning and after he left for work I fell pack asleep for a couple of hours. The really set the stage for the rest of the day - I was really down because I felt that I had wasted so much time. Today though I stayed up...and spent too much time on the computer. I have a hard time with discipline...There are so many useful things that I could be doing, my workout being one of them but my motivation is really low or something... I have some really great days, where I get a lot done and I feel really good and then there are others like yesterday... This is a major area in which I need to work. When it comes to kids, I have no idea other than they really need to learn respect at a young age and I think that starts at home. They kids I teach skating to have very little respect and that's really going to affect them when they get into school and grow up. It's pretty sad to see.

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