WACKY WEEK! A TIP for ‘getting too wild’.
Thursday, February 15th, 2007
It’s Wacky Week at Becky’s Preschool !!
The timing couldn’t have been better given the cold spurt we are having!
Monday was Wacky Monday and we kicked off the week wearing mismatched, backwards clothes.
It set the tone for the week……….have FUN!
And the kids are doing a great job of NOT BEING WILD!
Here’s a tip on how they did it. At the end of last year, the group and I came up with what we thought would be a simple and effective idea of something to do when things started to get too wild. It took this long for us to FINALLY implement it!
Like my mom always said, here’s what typically happens, “It starts out in fun. Someone gets hurt and it ends up with someone crying!”
The idea is that instead of trying to turn it around by me (the adult) telling everyone to settle down, I tell them ahead of time, as soon as you (one of the children) sense that something is getting out of hand, go sit at the table. If you (one of the children) notice someone is at the table, ask yourself if things are getting wild, and if so go sit at the table too.
This is a great example of ‘Kids-In-Charge’ and of Initiative and be an Example from the U.L.T.I.M.A.T.E. Skills. We always knew it should work, but it has been hard to get it started ‘in the moment’ versus in theory. This week someone finally did it! It has been truly helpful all week with all the extra craziness built into the day. Like with anything else, it has to be monitored so that one kid isn’t going to the table for everything!! We will come to a balance.
I think this idea could also work in a family setting. It really is a great substitute for timeouts. I am thinking that it would work if you only have one child if YOU were to go sit at the table. Think about it. You really just need to turn things around. If your child is being difficult and YOU go sit at the table, what could that do to accomplish your goal? I think it might work pretty well. I don’t like timeouts in that it makes the child feel shame and guilt and then you have THAT to deal with. If the adult were to go to the table………not saying that YOU did anything wrong, but sort of a neutral statement that things are not going well. I know that here, if I were to go to the table, and I just thought of it……..I should have done it myself rather than wait for the kids to get the idea on their own, I am sure the kids would notice me sitting there and join me. It would serve as an interruption in the conflict and we could all reset without that often times harsh interaction of, “Hey! Settle down. Go take a timeout.” Once things are calm, then you would be able to talk about what happened and the child would be in a more accepting place, having not felt horrible about him or herself.
CM