Today is the first official day I am home with my children. I have been looking forward to this day for weeks dare I say months. Sometimes kids don't know how much teachers actually look forward to the summer time. This year my summer consists of 3 weeks of vacation and 5 weeks of "optional" trainings. The children will spend most of their time this summer at a summer day camp run by the city. While they know we are not talking about it until they start next week. Amanda would spend the entire week in manic mode if we discuss it too much. She was nervous about going to her after school program for an entire day for my workday and she has been at the same place for 4 years.
So for the first day did I do something momentous to celebrate.. Make homemade pancakes in Teddy bear shapes (and for you naysayers yes I have done this in the past)—plan a picnic at the park. Nah, they wanted to have the same breakfast they have every morning and it gets too hot to go to park. Today will be spent finding clothes Amanda will wear for the summer and trying to get JD to clean out his t-shirt draw because I can't fit anything more into it and I swear he has t-shirts in there since before he started school.
We have already broken the first barrier of summertime. How long would it take me to yell at my wonderful children? For those who thought I would go days guess what I didn't even make it through breakfast. The kids started arguing over day old donuts. Dad had told JD he could have only 1 of each kind and Amanda who hadn't been told that wanted dare I say it the second chocolate frosted donut. JD was upset about the injustice of it all, Amanda was confused because yes I said she could have a donut and I got upset because come on people they were arguing over a stale donut!! So I told them in a loud voice if they were going to argue over donuts they could spend the summer in their rooms because I wasn't going to spend my summer listening to arguing. I think I was the silliest of us all. I broke the first rule of punishment.. the referees rules my mom had given me when I first started teaching; Which was never threaten anything you don't intend on following through. It has been more years than I care to admit since she gave me the sign for the classroom and I would do well to remember them. I remember the gist of it which was don't set rules you do not plan on enforcing. Enforce the rules equally for everyone and don't threaten what you will not do. I wish I could find that poster now. I think I need to get back to the basics with my own children. Set clear expectations and clear consequences for not meeting expectations.
I am raising my children in the age of positive discipline and don't get me wrong I believe in positive discipline but I also believe in consequences for making choices. So should I become the referee for the summer or should I just reward the good stuff and ignore the bad stuff. I think a little of both. All actions have consequences sometimes it is positive and sometimes it is negative. That is just the way of life.
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