Collaborative Post
Rules are a huge element of school life and children must try their best to respect the rules if they hope to do well throughout their education. Children, however, are not born knowing how to follow rules and just like reading and writing it's something that has to be taught.
Here are some tips on how to achieve this from an international school in Spain.
When you’re trying to teach a child good behaviour, it is really important to ensure their is lots of positive reinforcement and rewards and not just punishments for the odd bit of naughty behaviour. If your child breaks a school rule and you're in agreement that what your child has done is wrong, support the teachers in dealing with the behaviour. If your child breaks the same rule a second or third time, make sure you continue to deal with the behaviour until they learn to stop.
Like mentioned before, it can’t all be doom and gloom; it's really important that you praise your child when they do something right. Of course, verbal praise is great, but there’s nothing wrong with buying them a little reward, taking them to their favourite park or popping a few points on their reward chart to say “well done”, especially when they've done well at school.
Something else that's important is to lead by example. If you break the rules yourself, even once, your child will think it’s okay to do the same thing. For example, you might park somewhere you shouldn’t, drop a swear word when a car pulls out in front of you or forget to put your seat belt on when you’re driving. Just a couple of slip ups and your child will learn that breaking the rules isn’t so bad after all. Of course, you’re only human and you’re sure to make mistakes, just remember to explain to your child that it was wrong and you’re not proud of your behaviour.
If your child does break the rules from time to time don’t be too hard on them. They may have a legitimate underlying reason for doing what they did and it’s better to understand that reason rather than immediately tell them off.
Even at school, a little bit of acting out can often be a sign of wanting attention, especially if your little one is starting school for the first time. Lots of one and one time, support and positive reinforcement can go a long way.
Mummy Snowy Owl
xx
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