Blog

Backward Punishment

I am a 2nd grade teacher in the Los Angeles area. Lately there has been a resurgence of giving children standards to write as a form of punishment.

Since we struggle to help our children reach grade level in writing, I find this way of punishing a student (making him write) rather backward. I seem to be the only teacher who feels strongly about this? What do you think?

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Angry, irritated, tone of voice

Q. My ten-year-old daughter speaks with an angry, irritated, tone of voice most of the time. We have discussed it with her. And she says she does not want to talk to us this way--yet the habit persists. We feel we talk to her with respect.The things we have tried include, discussions in family meetings, and having her try it again, i.e., say it again respectfully. Still very little progress.In fact, it seems to be getting worse. She is an extremely polite, kind spoken, and sweet child to her friends, other parents, teachers, etc.

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Power Struggles with a 3 ½ yr. old

Dear Jane,

Wow, thank you so much for the good advice on how to respond to the name calling.Your approach is very sensible.I have taken the RCB and Developing Capable People classes and have found them to be very enlightening.

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Sexual Acting Out and Behavior

Question:

Recently my 7 ½ year old son had a friend for a sleep-over. While I was downstairs they were lying in the same bed. They kept acting up so bad that finally I separated and made them sleep in separate beds. The friend was very hyper so I lay down with him and talked with him until he calmed down and went to sleep.

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He hit me, so I had to hit him back.

Question:

I have a 2-year-old boy and he is very stubborn. When he is in trouble... I do punish him to sit down but he refuses to sit down. He keeps coming up to me and says sorry, but he is not finished with his punishment. Im confused about spanking my kid. When he tried to touch my typing board and I said No!! He hit me, so I had to hit him back to tell him that hurts me, he continued hitting me. What should I do?? Please send me more information about this situation. Thank you.

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Jared's Cool-Out Space - A Positive Time-Out Children's Book

About 20 years ago I wrote a draft for a children's book called, "The Gremlin Who Eats Toys That Aren't Picked Up." The idea was to write children's books that would teach Positive Discipline tools to parents while they read adorable picture books to their children.

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Routine Charts in China

Two years ago, when I started studying on Positive Discipline routine chart, I loved the idea. It took me two years to learn about the mistakes I made during my first attempt.

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A Family Meeting in China

I am Wendy Li, my Chinese name is Li Tao, I come from Chengdu. After learning Positive Discipline, I've become a better mom, and a better self. This picture shows my four-year-old daughter carefully taking notes during our first family meeting. Of cause she didn't know what to write at all.

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The Positive Discipline Journey

My husband, my then two year-old son, and I moved from Madrid, Spain to Chicago in 2008 because of my husband’s job. I was working at that time for a consulting company as a full-time manager. Even when I had my son, I had never considered stopping working, but moving to the U.S. was a major challenge for my career. I was able to continue working for the same company for a year after our arrival in Chicago, but then, due to personal circumstances, I decided to leave my job. Suddenly, I found myself “officially” a full-time mother without any parenting skills.

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Empowering vs Enabling Success Story

Why is it so much easier to “enable” than to empower? Enabling is adult behavior that puts the parent between the child and life experiences to minimize the consequences of the child's choices. Enabling includes rescuing, over-protecting, and controlling without involving the child in problem solving. Enabling behavior encourages an unhealthy dependence in children and prevents them from learning to do things for themselves.

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Online Learning

Positive Discipline offers online learning options for parents, teachers, and parent educators. Learn in the comfort of your own home and at your own pace. You have unlimited access to our online streaming programs, so you can watch and re-watch the videos as often as you like.

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