Positive Discipline for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners

Many parents wonder when they should be giving their kids an allowance. An allowance is a great way to teach your child independence. It can also be a great way to teach them at an early age that good behavior will be rewarded.

We've all noticed the child that rarely, if ever, listens to his parents. The parent exasperatedly shouts out commands – "don't do that, Billy;" "get away from there, Billy;" "stop touching that, Billy." But Billy doesn't listen. Why? Because Billy knows that his exasperated parent is all talk and no action. One of the first things kids learn is where the limits are set and how likely it is that they will be able to push them. In the case of Billy, he knows that his mom isn't going to discipline him, leaving the field open for him to do pretty much what he wants.

Responsibility is a valuable lesson that when instilled in children at an early age, can teach your child how to handle greater responsibilities they will encounter as they grow up. More than likely your child will be excited to start taking on household chores because it means you trust them enough responsibilities to let them handle a certain task or assignment. Responsibilities and chores will also allow your child to feel like they are part of the family and they bring something to the table. Tasks will encourage feelings of teamwork and self-worth within a child.

Even preschoolers and kindergartners are capable of participating in chores and managing basic responsibilities. The key is to keep chores and responsibilities age-appropriate and short, and to setup a structure that is simple enough for young children follow. Using printable chore charts really helps make the goals and daily progress easy to understand for kids.

One of the first routines we seem to develop with our children is the nighttime or bedtime routine. As new parents, we're excited to spend time with our children, but eager to see them drift off to dreamland so that we can get a few minutes of shut eye ourselves. This nighttime routine often comes more from necessity than anything else; it's a routine that develops naturally for most families. Although we don't often think about a routine as being an intentional set of actions, kids thrive on knowing what to do and when to do it. It gives them a sense of belonging and a sense of independence. Nighttime routines may include bath time, story time, and more. Evening routines not only help your child manage her time, they can help your child develop good habits. Many evening routines are a prelude to bed time, and each activity included in the routine is designed to prepare your child to end her day and say goodnight. Evening routines also help your child wind down from her busy day. Expecting a child to go from playtime to bedtime is difficult. Working her into the idea of going to bed via a nighttime routine makes the process much easier.

Parenting is a difficult, yet rewarding, challenge for most people. No two children are alike, so it is difficult to know exactly how to handle every decision and behavioral issue with your child. Everyone approaches parenting in their own way, often pulling from the experiences they had while growing up as well as the advice and guidance they receive from family and friends. There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way to raise children, but there are different methods which have been proven to be more successful than others. Dealing with behavioral problems is a major challenge for most parents. What is the right way to discipline a child that misbehaves and does the severity of the action require different responses from the parent?

As your toddler starts speaking words like “I want this”, “gimmee that”, “Mommy puh-leeeeeese just one more”, many moms get bogged down because we love to hear the sweet sound of our “yeses”, (and of course so do the kids!) But sometimes “Nos” just have to be said. Yet, there are ways to make “NO” into a symphony that both you and your kids can listen to!

Making kids listen to you is probably one of the toughest challenges when it comes to parenthood. Asking your child to do something over and over again can be highly frustrating and often ends in an argument. However, yelling is not the way to get your kids to follow suit, instead try a few SuperNanny tips and techniques.

Many parents find getting readhing for school and out of the house with kids in the morning frustrating. Designing a simple morning routine may make mornings fun and pleasant for both parents and kids. Routines are easy to implement and can be fun when used in combination with charts.

There are few words of advice more important in parenting than "consistency." Parents have to apply consistent discipline, be consistent with rules, be consistent between parents, and apply consistent routines. Kids thrive on routine, and consistence is part of that. Kids need to know what to expect, what is right and wrong, and consistency is a key factor in helping kids thrive. Kids learn early on how to manipulate parents. There isn't a parent alive that hasn't been worn down by a begging, pleading, tantrum-throwing child. The occasional cave-in won't likely produce a spoiled, confused child, but consistent inconsistencies are not beneficial for you or your child.

From the moment our children are born, we use our voices to communicate. Long before they understand actual word meanings, kids garner meaning from a parent's tone of voice. This ability to extract meaning from tone remains with us the rest of our lives. We communicate with infants using a soft voice and a soothing tone. Conversely, we may communicate anger with an older child by using a loud voice and a displeased tone. Tone of voice is a form of language that relies on perceived meaning rather than literal meaning, and it is an important teaching tool for kids.

Positive discipline is a way for parents to teach kids to follow the ruleswhile, at the same time, teaching them how to respect others. Positive discipline engages parents and encourages them to find creative ways to discipline kids with love and respect.

Many young children feel entitled to do whatever it is they please, especially preschoolers and kindergarteners who are just discovering the wealth of activities that await them. This can lead to behavioral problems, but by using a system of privileges and rewards to enforce appropriate behavior parents can encourage their children to maintain a proper demeanor and reward them with activities that they enjoy.

Some experts insist that all punishment for children is ineffective. However, the problem isn't so much that punishment itself is ineffective, but that it isn't applied properly and balanced with positive reinforcement. Your preschool and kindergarten-age children need to experience punishment, but they also need to experience positive parenting through reinforcement. Punishment can be thought of as a consequence. We all know that our actions have consequences. Children need to learn that too. Punishment, applied properly, teaches kids that their actions have consequences, but, more importantly, positive parenting, through positive reinforcement helps kids confidently apply good behavior to all aspects of their lives.

According to renowned baby and child care expert Dr. Benjamin Spock, you can't spoil a child that is under six months old. After that, all bets are off. We get spoiled children for a number of reasons. Sometimes a sickly or needy infant ends up spoiled simply because his parents want to make him as comfortable as possible. Sometimes we inadvertently spoil our children trying to meet their needs. If you missed the cut-off between accommodating a young infant's needs and actual spoiling, you'll need to know how to unspoil your child.

Okay, so every parent who has watched Supernanny knows the most basic positive parenting trick in the book to get our children to listen is the: "The Supernanny time out." Time-out is when we take our child away from a specific activity and give them time to reflect on their bad behavior. Well guess what? Kids rarely take time-outs seriously to spend that time reflecting. Instead they spend those minutes bribing us, coming up with ultimatums, crying, screaming, kicking, and so on and so forth. Let's be real, the time-out chair has seen it all. But have you tried SuperNanny's time-out secrets? Well if you haven't, be prepared to change your time-out ways.

Everyone needs an occasional time out, even adults. Time outs are a great positive parenting technique which can be used as constructive ways to discipline childrenand slow down the action and get your child to take a minute for himself. Even preschool-aged children can benefit from the occasional time out.

Children are never too young to learn values. In many ways, parenting is about giving kids good information, solid skills, and lots of support and then crossing our fingers as they go out into the world.