So I went to a seminar through work yesterday called Conscious Discipline. I was hoping to find some new strategies to use with Eva and I did take away some things that I will use. Remember though I am in no way an expert on this method so if you want a more detailed description please click on the link.
Is was a little difficult for me to “buy in” to everything they were saying but overall I think it is a good concept. First they described children’s behavior in context of brain activity.
The brain stem, is the pat that tells you when you are in danger. So when your child is screaming, hitting, and throwing a tantrum really what they are saying is “Am I safe?” This is where you convince your child that they are safe by getting down on their level and talking in a calm but assertive voice. “You are mad that Sally took your toy away. You wanted to play with that toy.” You can encourage your child to take a deep breath to relieve tension. This makes them feel safe because you are modeling self-control and helping them to get control of themselves.
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Ever since my daughter was 9 months old she has been in the sport of hitting mommy. I remember the first time she did it, I was very surprised and tried to handle it as calmy as possible. For the first few months I just told her “no, hitting. Nice” and rubbed her hand gently on my face.
After she turned one I started getting mad when she would do it. I have never and will never hit my daughter, then why is she hitting me?! I would grab her hands and very sternly say “No, no hit!”
She is now one and a half and still does it. Actually she doesn’t just hit she scratches and pulls my hair too. She doesn’t discriminate either. She does it to other kids, daddy, and the dog! Now when she does it she immediatley says “Nice” and rubs her hand on my face. That’s great and all but in a couple of minutes she does it again, and again, and again. Since copius amounts of positive reinforcement hasn’t seemed to work I have started using time out after the third time. Originally I thought she was too young but it actually works quite well with her.
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Well the “Do Good Project” didn’t make it to the top 25 but this one did! This sounds like a great cause. Of course the Mayans of Guatemala are a people close to my heart and I think this sounds like a great way to help educate these young people who have so little.
Again, sorry to get political. I really do respect that some of us have different views on these types of things and I want you to know that I love you anyways. But these are my views, and I think this video by Jon Stewart is even more hilarious than the onion one I posted last week. Enjoy!
Okay so this is definitely NOT a children’s book but I just read it and HAD to write about it. It is a deeply tragic story about the Jewish Holocaust. The author is famous cartoon artist Art Spiegelman who writes about his mother and father’s experience as survivors of Auschwitz. He writes in comic book format where the Nazi’s are Cats and the Jews are Mice. I found this story to be very interesting and very emotional to read. Although extremely disturbing at times I think it is so important to read stories like this so that we never forget the human tragedy that happened in Europe during the 1940’s. I remember reading the Diary of Anne Frank
There are two parts, Part I gives the background of how the war started and progressed until they ended up in the concentration camps. Part II is the story of what happened in those camps. It was very difficult to read at times, actually it was horrific but so well written that I feel Spiegelman was born to write this book.
If you decide to read these books make sure you buy them both at the same time because you will immediatly want to start number II when you finish with number I. Also about halfway through the first book you will not be able to put it down and the entire second one you will want to read all the way through until you are done. If anyone else has read these books or has any insight about WWII and the holocaust I would love for you to post our thoughts here.
