I am going to school for education. I will graduate with degrees in early childhood and elementary education and I still feel crazy sometimes. One day I asked my dh what in the hell I was doing thinking I wanted to deal with a classroom of them? Anyway, my fave class has been classroom management. It has really helped me control my own home with much less frustration. It's based on dealing with children on their cognitive and developmental level. A few key points:

1. Of course model the behavior that you want them to exhibit.
2. Allow them to say no. They are in a power struggle with that. As long as it is not something that is going to physically hurt them or their sibling, allow them to say no to food, etc.
3. Allow them to make decisions by giving them choices.
4. Time out should not be a "punishment" it should be a comfortable place to cool off.
5. We should not use praise/rewards or physical punishment to teach them. It is more of a long term cognitive plan where they work together to form a plan and help you implement it.


I know some of this sounds like mumbo jumbo and I honestly thought
"yeah right, they need their butts whipped" but it has worked so much better. It was exhausting at first, but it has worked wonders for us. there are still days where I'm tossing the "f" word around like a sailor, but they are much less than they used to be.

I have more tips and direct examples if you care to hear any more, if not, toss my advice and don't mind me. I hope that you can find them some things to get them busy. Another thing that really helped us is activity time. We do scissor time, color time, playdough time, etc. They love it and I can relax a bit.

I hope you can avoid the breakdown, I have been known to have jello shots in my fridge and toss some back before I totally melt down. I have a great recipe for some malibu and pineapple ones if that's the only advice you want from me!

Becca

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