There is no such thing as ‘discipline’; it is behavior management or modification.

There is no such thing as ‘discipline’; it is behavior management or modification. Because discipline is fixed, like in the army, but behavior can vary and with it varies the methods of handling deviant behavior. The problem is that as adults we follow a strict policy with kids that says,’ Do as we say, not as we do’, and we forget that kids learn by imitation! So you can see mothers and teachers shouting at their kids and asking them to ‘be quiet’!

Yet another myth- Patience. You can’t have patience with kids, should not have, as there is no such thing as patience. Patience implies that you are ‘bearing with’ someone, instead of basing your discipline on patience base it on understanding. Because in patience you will control the child instead of guiding the child. So stop telling yourself, I need to be patient with my child, instead say have I understood what the child is actually trying to tell me with the behavior? Usually kids have lots to tell you, but do not have the supportive language development and so their boredom, frustration, anger comes out in behavioral problems. Show them a socially accepted avenue to show their anger and frustration, don’t stop them from experiencing these emotions, use sentences like,’ I know you are angry because I did not give you the toy, but instead of beating me, you can beat the pillow’.

Don’t react to kids misbehavior with your own, oh yes it happens. Let me tell you about this mother and child I watched at the check in  terminal of an airport (the best place that I watch kids interact with their parents!) a mother sitting in front of me had her 3 year old son sitting facing her on her lap. Both of them were engrossed in a beautiful interaction and bonding by singing nursery rhymes that the child must have learnt in his playschool. The mother’s mobile phone rang and mid sentence she picked up her cell and started talking to the other person. I could see the child’s face was disappointed, but the child waited patiently for a full minute( long time in a toddler’s world!) then started nudging the mother, ‘mummy’, ‘mummy’, mummy’ he went on quietly and patiently. No response from mummy, she was happily ignoring the child and chatting on the phone. Exasperated and irritated the child caught hold of the mothers chin and said, ‘mummy chalo na’, mummy just shook her head and carried on, to which; to my utter amazement the child slapped the mother! In reaction to which, to my utter horror, the mother slapped the child and the child starting bawling. Mother embarrassed, switched off the phone, and started cajoling the child, ‘I am so sorry beta’ etc etc out of guilt and embarrassment. The child refused to stop crying only increased the octaves of screaming! She bought a chocolate for the child and pacified the child.

So what went wrong in this beautiful interaction that was on between mother and child? How did a lovely singing bond end in this ‘free for all’?

Simple, the mother did not show respect for the child, when the mobile phone rang she should have either completed the song that they were singing and then picked up the phone or should have excused herself and told the child, I will take this call and then we will continue. And she should have known to recognize the signs of ‘final frustration’ that kids exhibit, which is ‘holding your chin and making you look at them’, when kids do this, they are serious, serious about throwing a full blown tantrum! Final mistake she made she answered a slap with a slap, isn’t that ‘do as we say and not as we do’? if we are telling kids that they must not hit when they are angry, then how can we hit when we are angry? And then buying a chocolate to pacify the child? Materialistic parenting, a no-no for healthy development of kids.

So respect children and watch for the impeding signs of tantrums and misbehavior. Catch them being good instead of punish them when bad.

Children in the first 6 years lack impulse control, which is why without thinking the little boy slapped his mother. Impulse control comes with the development of the pre frontal cortex, so the more the prefrontal cortex develops, the better will be the logic, reasoning, attention, focus in children. Play games to develop impulse control, simple games like ‘Simon says’, ‘red light, green light’, all develop impulse control. For example in ‘Simon says’, the child has to concentrate and wait for the word ‘Simon’ to do the action, so he controls his impulse to do the action, until he hears the word.

Punishment is a strict no-no. that is a traditional method, we need guidance, show the child where he went wrong and what he should have done instead- The difference between the two approaches is that traditional discipline criticizes children- often publicly- for unacceptable behaviors whereas guidance teaches children positive alternatives, what they can do instead.  

In today’s world teachers and mothers need to be leaders and not bosses. In Piaget’s words they must work for the goal of ‘autonomy’ (intelligent and ethical decision making) rather than obedience

According to behavioural expert and author ANNE COPLEY there are four zones that you should look out for in kid’s behaviour-

1.    Safe zone- when children feel wanted, secure, loved, their needs are met, they function in a safe zone and such children are happy, well adjusted and well behaved.

2.    Learning zone- when children experience safe zone, they are able to learn, explore, be creative, make decisions, choose, focus and this is the learning zone, they will be smarter and learn more.

3.    Anxiety zone- children who do not feel safe, secure, wanted and reassured are in the anxiety zone. Anxiety leads to irritation, frustration and anger. It is in this zone that they will start sending out signs and signals that tell you they are about to ‘let all hell loose’!

4.    Stress zone – when you are unable to read those signs and give them the required reassurance, help, guidance, they move into the stress zone, where all hell breaks loose.

It takes a lot of effort, learning, unlearning, guidance, love, time to bring a child from the stress zone to the safe zone. So ideally keep them in the safe and learning zone and never reach the anxiety zone.

Adults should remember that children do not misbehave we misinterpret their behaviour.

The little girl learning numbers and her mother…

The family of this little girl learning math has come out and spoken about the video and in this entire episode there is a strong message for teachers, schools, parents, families, society and the government. Its time we learned from this video episode:

For teachers and schools:

Why are open houses a platform where the blame of the child’s behavior or non-performance is passed on to the parents? Its time schools and teachers took ownership and realized that ‘they’ are the educators so they will have to guide the parents firmly, passionately and with a knowledge based on the fact that when you criticize a child to its parent, it wounds the ego and self worth of the parent who then is hurt and angry and removes it on the child. This is exactly what happened to this mother, the teachers were constantly complaining to the mother that the girl is naughty (if children wont be naughty then WHO WILL BE?!!) and that the girl did not know her numbers or did not do her work. Take ownership with the parents and say during open house- “ we have observed that your child  is very intelligent and does require some support while completing her work, so as her teacher I suggest that I will do the following in school to support her and you can do the following at home. Let us meet again and compare notes on what is helping and what is not so that we can change our method and make it more suitable to her needs.”

For the parents:

If a school complains about your child (foolish school!) it does not mean the end of the world. Your child’s first supporter is you and when you also go against your child and start getting angry, upset and stressed out then it leaves your child nowhere. Don’t do that to your child. Ask the teacher what she would like you to do and if the teacher puts her hands up and says ‘I give up’ then it is time to rethink about the school. Open houses are for sharing about the concerns that the school feels can come in the way of the child’s success and finding solutions together, not a blame game or passing the parcel! Open houses are a celebration of the child’s success in every domain and not an event for parents to dread or be bored of.

Stop blaming the child for its inability to ‘perform’ to perfection. When you compare your child to others, check the birth date of your child and the other child, you will notice there is a difference and during the first 8 years even a difference of a month makes a huge difference in the development of every child. So stop getting stressed by teachers and schools, choose wisely. This stress being put on kids is ‘pinching’ your child more than the high fees! 

Stop posting your child’s videos and photos on social media, be aware that everyone is not going to be looking at the video or photo you posted from your point of view. For many it would just be the ‘forward’ of the day, don’t make your child  a part of these ridiculous social media forwards however hilarious you think the video or photo is. You owe it to your child! Would you like it if when you are old and frumpy, your child posts photos of you unable to perform simple tasks or slipping and falling etc.? There is something called privacy…practice it with your child first!

Stop justifying child abuse (hitting, pinching, slapping, threatening) and start a non-violence policy in your parenting. I have seen many posts on parenting groups that it is easy to say ‘don’t hit your child’ but the child does not listen otherwise. Please remember the child is not ‘listening’ when you ‘hit’, the child is learning to be ‘intimidated’ with your brute force, which in the long term will teach your child to use intimidation with others or get intimidated by others (especially sexual predators).

For society:

Stop forwarding posts that come from your family..at least do that! Friends it is ‘social media’ and one cannot stop videos and photos from being forwarded once it reaches social media, it gets a life of its own. For all those who tried to give some conscience to those who were forwarding the video, good for you, but also stop the other videos of children acting funny etc. once a video reaches social media there is no stopping it!

Stop blaming the child and using sentences like- “why are you troubling mummy?” “why don’t you do your homework?” “see mummy is so upset with you” etc. because this will damage the self worth of young children and they will grow up feeling worthless and guilty. Stop putting the guilt on the child. Own up! Take responsibility. Stand up against violence and aggression towards children. Don’t condone it even in your homes.

For the government:

Stop turning a blind eye to the stress being put on little children in preschools in the name of writing, reading, and math. You with your silence are ensuring that these children are growing up with constant stress and grow up to be fractured youth. The foundation years are the most important and you with your silence and confusion about which ministry (women and child development or HRD) should define curriculum framework and guidelines of preschools in all states, are harming the future of this country. Let preschool education not be a concurrent subject in the states.

We have great hopes from this government, so please, its time to have a separate ministry for Early Childhood Care and Education so that schools stop doing this to children and parents. Please act before it’s too late.

To the mother:

I can understand the trauma you must be going through because of the amount of people pointing a finger to you. Don’t blame yourself. Blame the traditional parenting and teaching in our country. You grew up learning that and you are practicing it…not your fault. But I urge you to stop feeling guilty about the video or making your child feel guilty about it. This video has started a conversation and discussion in education and parenting circles and it will bring about change…I am sure. If you need to ever talk about or discuss your parenting issues, seek a mentor, don’t discuss with friends or family members who have no solutions, seek an expert. The Early Childhood Association is there for you, reach out to us by sending a whatsapp on 0981985512 (this is an appeal to all parents). We will help you, mentor you with solutions so that you and your child can both be stress free.

I was a naughty child too and my kindergarten teachers would always complain that I talk too much and cant sit straight, but look at me today, I am successfully using my ‘talkative’ nature to give lectures and travelling from city to city to help teachers, children and parents (cant sit straight!) and I had bad handwriting..today I type!. So your little girl will also grow up to be a successful individual only if you give her the support she deserves. Childhood is about being naughty, ‘not able’ to sit in one place and talking ‘too much’… because children are exploring the world, getting to know themselves and others and when you stop this exploration, you stunt their growth and make them aggressive, impatient, and unruly.

Wipe those tears woman, and go and hug your little girl and face the world and say, “yes, I erred and accepted, but what about you?” Because most mothers and fathers are doing what you are doing…the difference…their videos have not gone viral! We are there for you….and every child and parent.

Blue Whales, Pehredaar, Chotis and 1,2,3

What a sick world we live in, and we don’t realize it! We are surrounded by ‘pervertness’ and perverts because of which we have children being sexually abused by uncles, school teachers and serials like Pehredaar Piya Ki where a 9 year old is married to a 19 year old and they show their suhag raat! People watch this serial without any remorse which is leading to high TRP, isn’t that sickness that this kind of wrong content is being accepted by the audience? And what about the child actor’s mother? How did she allow her son to be used in such inappropriate content? What is this blind and senseless drive to make your child famous, successful and earn money, at what cost? It shocks me because the ‘subtle’ message that is going out to all sexual perverts is that it is acceptable for a child and an adult to have a relationship!!!

Sexual perverts, who rape girls and young women, chase them, hound them, and throw acid on them! We live in this sick world and either have no time to do anything about it or don’t know who to approach for the solution. So we have petitions, and marches and all, but have things changed? And then you have the other abusers- parents and teachers beating, threatening young babies and children. It is only a sick mind that can do all this and not feel remorse.

And how can we forget choti episode! Chotis being cut in the dark of night and spreading like wild fire, is it superstition? Or just a way to get free media attention? Who knows, but the more it is being reported the more it is spreading to other cities. I wonder what would happen if the media just stopped reporting about it? Let the police look into it if it is an ongoing crime. I feel the media should use precious broadcast hours to highlight real crimes and injustice instead of focusing on such choti news!

There is a video going viral on whatsapp of a little child who is being ‘taught’ by her mother/aunt/teacher (no idea) but the video is absolutely shocking and makes you cringe that a woman (where is the so called ‘motherly instinct’?) is threatening, slapping the child, all to make the child learn 1,2,3. The child is seen to be in a complete state of fear, depression and appeals to the woman to ‘please teach with love’ but the woman keeps terrorizing the child. As I watched this video and saw the child’s reaction flitting between violent anger and extreme helplessness, I realized that this child already has its future written for him/her, either he/she will grow up to be a child who will terrorize and abuse others or will grow up in extreme depression and take drugs or commit suicide. A wonderful life lost because of adult sickness.

And then we have teenagers committing self-harm and suicide because of games like Blue Whale. Agreed that teenage is a period when adolescents like the ‘high’ of taking risks but there is something called adult monitoring that parents and teachers should be doing to ensure that teenagers are not falling prey to self damaging habits. It is untreated depression and social alienation that leads to teenagers being addicted to drugs or online games like blue whale.

The common cause of all of these issues is this blind chase of ‘success’ at any cost.  Drilled into children from very young.  “Why didn’t you colour properly?” “Why didn’t you get full marks?” “Why didn’t you get the main role in the school concert?” And then start the comparisons, “your cousin’s handwriting is better than yours”, or “why cant you be good in math like your friend?” “Yash got into Harvard and you…” and ends with making the child bear the weight of your disappointment, “cant you do anything right?”

So when kids don’t get ‘recognition’ they try to get it on online groups, every human being needs ‘belonging’ and when the family, especially the parents and school are unable to do so then they find it in friends and to ‘belong’ they do all that their friends think is ‘cool’. Risk taking, logic, impulse control are all part of the prefrontal lobe- the thinking brain and it is this part of the brain that is not fully developed yet, hence teenagers need a calm, emotionally controlled ‘brain’ that knows how to communicate with them, but sadly we find teenagers brash, rude and tend to be brash, sarcastic and rude to them which drives them away…. to their ‘faceless friends’ on the net or social media.

Attachment is another key issue. Parents are quite attached to children till they turn 5, after that parents feel they ‘lost’ them to friends and so either drift away from them or try to ‘smother-mother’ them, both of which do not end well. It is important for parents to understand each stage of development and keep the ‘bond’ strong with their children, and then they would know when their children need them etc. In most of the Blue Whale cases the parents did not know about the child’s activity on the net. It means conversations and sharing was not there in the relationship because of fear of being shamed or shouted. Attachment is a term least referred to but is the strongest ingredient in the parent-child relationship. I appeal to all parents to have daily conversations with their children about what they see on TV or what is reported in the news, this will help your children see your point of view and will help you see theirs. Please remember that the parent is a child’s first counselor.

And the last culprit- screen parenting! From very early in life we are happy to pacify children, babysit children, and appreciate children with screen time. Children are growing up with listening to ‘screen’ voices more than human voices and no wonder they relate and react more to the screen voice that dictates to them what to do. Its time to move away from screen parenting and scream parenting. Social media is here to stay and we need to stop blaming it, it is a platform that helps in networking and connectivity. Just like we nurture children to understand how to make ‘real’ friends we need to educate them about ‘virtual’ friends too. It is our responsibility to make social media safe for our children. Just like we teach them road safety we need to cultivate ‘net safety’, just like we teach them etiquette we need to teach them ‘netiquette’.

Pehradaar, Blue Whale and the little baby being taught 1,2,3, are a revelation that today our society has lost its moral values.  When morals are lost with it is lost the ability to differentiate between right and wrong and that is what we need to give our children, the ability to choose between right and wrong and not accept wrong because others are accepting it. If we are blaming today’s youth for falling prey to Blue Whale then are not the adults falling prey to Pehredaar Piya Ki kind of serials?

Its time to move away from screen parenting and scream parenting, and time to make attachment and belonging the focus of our parenting and education and not success and failure.

Shape a genius with the Father of Kindergarten

Shape a genius with the Father of Kindergarten!

Did you know that the foundation of geometry and physics is laid in the kindergarten years? Yes, it is. Children interact with the basic principles of geometry and physics when they play with blocks! And that is why the kindergarten years are important and so is play in these years. Because after all play is the work of childhood. So if you want your child to be a genius buy some wooden blocks of various sizes and shapes today. Not the plastic variety that interlocks and have ‘set’ designs for the child to copy. But simple shape and colour blocks and set your child on the journey to learn and love physics and geometry for life!

Every child goes through kindergarten but how many parents or teachers actually know the meaning of the word or the founder of kindergarten. Today in India kindergarten has become K.G and it stands for reading, writing and number work only. But is that the real kindergarten?

Friedrich Froebel, a German educationist was the founder of the kindergarten system. “Kindergarten” is a German word which means ‘children’s garden’, i.e., a place in which young human plants are cultivated.  Froebel regarded the school as a garden and the teacher as gardener who carefully tends the little human plants under his care, and helps them to grow to beauty and perfection.

According to him the development of the child is to be through play.  He said, “play is the most beautiful and most spiritual activity of man at this stage.  It exhibits freedom and creative activity.  It satisfies the child, for it gives expression to so many of his instincts.  In play, the child makes the internal external and so the work of teaching in the kindergarten system is to be done in the play spirit.  The child will be and should be taught everything through play.”

For the complete education and training of the child Froebel devised a series of ‘gifts’.  Yes, he did not call them ‘toys’ or ‘material’ but ‘gifts’, because that is how he wanted them to be presented to the child. The gifts comprise of carefully graduated series of materials that possess all the novelty of playthings, yet they form the basis of his educational method.   

They are to train the senses of sight and touch, to give the child an idea of size and surface, and to present the child a correct idea of number.  The gifts are to be given to the child in a certain order.  The gradation and order of gifts is determined by the principle of development.  The gifts are altogether twenty in number but here I will describe the first four.

Gift I- consists of six coloured woolen balls three in primary colours, red, yellow and blue, and three secondary colours, orange, green and purple.  The activity consists in rolling them about in play.  Thus they develop in the children the idea of colour and material, form, motion, direction, and muscular sensibility.

Gift II- is composed of a sphere, cube and cylinder made of hardwood.  In playing with these the child notices the difference between the stability of the cube, and the mobility of the sphere.  He/she observes that the cylinder is both stable and movable, and that is harmonizes both the qualities in one.

Gift III- is a large cube divided into eight smaller equal cubes: from these the child can build up a number of useful artistic forms such as benches, steps, doors, bridges, etc. And for this reason the third gift is often called the first building box.  The child can also gain elementary ideas of addition and subtraction through these.

Gift IV- consists of the large cubes divided into eight oblong prisms in each which the length is twice the breadth and the breadth is twice the thickness.  This helps the child to construct different kinds of buildings and patterns when combined with the third gift.

Froebel’s gifts were not ‘marketed’ well and so got lost over the years. Montessori did refine them in her didactic equipment. But both of them promoted the use of blocks and that is the best way to shape children’s learning about shapes and colours and children can play their way into the world of genius! SO GIFT YOUR CHILD BLOCKS TODAY. Froebel’s gifts are available on many websites; do gift them to your school.

Speak to me…

Parents and teachers are responsible for nurturing language skills in children. Language is best taught through imitation and by doing the following with children…

Provide a language rich environment-

•      Talk to the child
•      Expose the child to songs and stories
•      Label everything in the environment
•      Choose age appropriate books- first picture books, then books with one word, then books with short sentences and then short stories.
•      Use picture talk often in daily activities
•      Let the child  name objects
•      Do not make the child  repeat after you
•      Use songs that have chorus lines that children can participate in
•      Avoid using audio songs in which singers  have a very heavy accent.
•      Talk, talk, talk and talk to children
•      Listen, listen, listen and listen when they talk- do not prompt, interrupt or correct them when they are trying to talk.
•      You want to correct them then after they complete their sentence, you can repeat the sentence in the correct way. They will learn by imitation.

Remember-

1. ‘I will want to talk only if I have something to talk about’

•      So give rich experiences and activities to the child everyday, something novel, done in a unique and creative manner, this will get them excited and want to talk about their  activity or experience.

2. ‘If you correct me while I am talking, I will forget what I was going to say.’

•      Please understand what the children are going through, when they are  learning English, the second language(their  first language is the mother tongue and hence English is second language)  which in most of our schools is the ‘first language’!. Children  think  in think in thier mother tongue. When they experience something that they want to talk about, they are trying to translate thier thoughts in English, and that takes time, so they pause, after a word or repeat some words again and again (I………………..I………………….I…………………..went ……………….went…………..water) now if you interrupt them by saying, (o.k you went where? To the supermarket?) You have completely misunderstood  and now the child  is on another track, that of answering your question. So they lose thier train of thought and suddenly communication in English becomes a very difficult task for them. Instead, you could have waited patiently for child to finish speaking and then could have said- “o.k , so you want to drink water.”

3. “The more I listen, the better I will talk.”

Listening is a very important skill to language development. Some do’s and don’t’s for early care givers-

•      Do not keep repeating instructions
•      First get the child’s attention and then give the instruction
•      Talk in a soft, clear voice
•      Don’t nag, yell or be shrill
•      Be clear about your pronunciations
•      Never make children repeat the sentence after you. For ex. If the child said- ‘I went water’, Do not say, ‘no dear, it is I want water’, now say it. Instead just say, ‘oh, you want water’. Listening to you will automatic ally teach him the right words and  pronuncation

Teach children instructions.

For this I have successfully used the step method, many teachers and parents that I have taught it too, find it extremely successful-

•      At age one your child should be able to follow one step directions- like ‘come here’, ‘sit here’ etc
•      At age two, your child should be able to follow two step directions, like- ‘bring the ball and come here’ etc
•      At age three its time for three step directions, ‘go to the table, pick up the spoon and bring it here’.
•      At age four, your child should be able to follow 4 step directions and by age 5 and forever at least 5 step directions. Because when your child joins primary school/high school the teacher uses a lot of directions in her conversation, children who are unable to listen tend to ask their neighbour and get labeled as talkative and the child who tends to ask the teacher what to do gets labeled as a baby, always requiring help! So to make their life easier, start playing direction games at home. (also important, how many step directions are you able to follow?)

Singing songs, reading stories to children all help in developing listening skills. Also important is to let children listen with their ‘ears’ and not their ‘eyes’! Do not translate all your instructions into actions, then they will look at your actions and understand what you are saying, then they will not listen. Always wait for the children to stop talking before you give instructions, do not shout instructions, sing the instructions if you have to-

Twinkle twinkle little star

Time to wind up, where you are.

Time to put your toys away

Time to tidy up the class

Twinkle twinkle little star.

Here is an excellent game to improve attention span, listening skills and the ability to follow instructions:

v  Begin this activity by placing large squares with animal patterns (stripes of a zebra and tiger, spots of a leopard and deer etc.) on the floor, in a circle.

v  There can be a name card on/next to the pattern, so that the children can identify the pattern card.

v  The teacher/parent will then explain, “Children today we are going to play a game of skip, hop, stop!” Before we start, I want everyone to practice skipping, hopping, and stopping. Let’s get into a big circle. When I say, skip, we will all skip on both feet around the circle. When I say hop, we will hop on one foot like this and when I say stop! We will stay absolutely still like a statue. Ready to try it?”

v  Next, choose a leader to stand in the middle of the circle, while the children stand in a group, waiting for directions. The leader, then chooses a movement word, for e.g. “hop” and the children hop from picture to picture around the circumference of the circle. When the leader says, “stop!” The children stand very still on the place they are.

v  The leader will then pick the name of an animal from a box next to him (the pictures of the animals can be put in the box before the game begins) and says it aloud.

v  The child or children who are on that animal pattern will then have to describe that animal (what sound it makes, how it eats, how it moves etc. can also be part of the description) without talking.

v  The leader can be changed with every round or up to the teacher‘s/parent’s discretion.

v  The game can continue for as long as the children‘s interest lasts.

 Children will learn language easily when you make it fun and interesting.

How to Train Staff effectively

Training early childhood teachers, leaders and teams in management principles with boring management quotes just does not work. Why not help your teams learn through games and rhymes?  

Here are some great management principles disguised in simple everyday games and rhymes. Play and sing while you learn and lead!  Become a better leader, mentor your team to be more organized and be able to manage time, change and people, effectively and successfully. Try it, it is fun and it works too. Play the games given below with your teams and then at the end of the game share the management gyan with them!

1.      Passing the parcel- everyone knows how to play this game- but what team management lesson does this game teach us? - Simple, do not pass the buck, some day the ball will stop at you and you will get the forfeit. So do your work and your duty and if at fault take the blame, don’t pass the buck!

2.      I spy game – a simple game, in which you hide an object and others have to find it. What does this game teach us? – It teaches us to be keen observers and look for the hidden quality threats in our centre. So play this game often as it develops keen observation skills which will help staff to seek out what’s wrong. It can be a miss spelt word on a chart, a cobweb hiding in a corner, a nail sticking out from the furniture, a water puddle that can be a potential safety threat.

3.      Mary had a little lamb- and everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go- what does this rhyme teach us?- a simple management principle- Follow the culture of the organisation.  Be a good leader and train your team well, explain the reasons behind the rules and the systems  and then you will have stress free teams that focus and agree on quality, quality, quality.

4.      Race around the clock with hickory dickory dock- time management is the lesson from this rhyme. With the advent of social media, teams now struggle with multiple tasks and don’t know how to prioritize for time management. The mouse knew what to do when the clock struck one- do you? Teach your teams to set an hour wise timetable/target for themselves. A beautiful way to teach and practice time management.

5.      Little Bo Beep has lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them……. when new academic year begins, a lot of things are happening together and coupled with weather, moods, deadlines there is a high chance of work going haywire. When teams go haywire or a day goes hay wire and nothing works, just go with the flow and slowly things will fall into place.  Disorganized day schedules can add to stress levels and tears so just leave them alone and they will come home……!

6.      Little boy blue has a job to do- but where is the boy? Fast asleep.  There is always that one or sometimes two staff members that go unnoticed and play hooky while others work hard. Are you aware of each staff’s schedule ? Are all  aware of duties and responsibilities? What is every team member’s job description, and if they ‘sleep’ on their duties then what are  the repercussions, define the duties and define the repercussions or else you will have some team members always sleeping on the job and others bearing the brunt of it, and doing all the extra work.

7.      Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet…- New teachers and new staff members are like little Miss Muffet, scared of the unknown! Prepare teachers especially new ones about the job and the ‘emergencies or things out of control’ that sometimes add stress to the job. Is she/he prepared or will she/he be like little Miss Muffet when faced with the spider? The biggest spider that we need to watch out for is staff gossip as it drives away many a Miss Muffet!

So you have a rainbow of songs and games to practice and play at your centre with yourself and your staff. And in each of the above is hidden a management principle or training, so in true spirit of developmentally appropriate practice even you are playing while you learn!