One of the most common problems you will run into while providing child care for working families is when your toddlers don't listen. Having children of various ages and in various stages of their development, you are going to have days when no one seems to listen to what you are saying. Though this is very frustrating, there are creative ways to cut back on these situations. Below is a list of simple and creative tricks you can use to ensure that the children in your care listen to you more often than not.
Brown Baggy Buddies
You don't have to spend a ton of money to ensure your child listen to you. In fact, you can use regular paper lunch bags as an incentive to get their cooperation. Assign a brown paper lunch bag to each child and keep them by the door. At the end of the day, if they have listened and behaved appropriately, leave them a little surprise. You can have them bring their bag back every day or give them a new one every morning. This idea is so inexpensive it won't matter one way or another.
As a fun activity for your child care children during the day, have them decorate their own paper lunch bag. Not only will it give the children in your care something fun to do, it will also make sure that their bags are distinguishable from the others.
Use Your Voice
Children, especially small children, tend to not listen if what you are asking them to do doesn't sound fun. For instance, if you simply instruct them to pick up the blocks, you may have one or two toddlers that aren't going to listen because it sounds boring. Get excitement in your voice when you are giving them instructions. Make picking up the blocks sound like it is the best thing in the world to do. If you still have toddlers that aren't buying it, make picking up the blocks look fun. For example, you can play a fun game with the children who are listening while cleaning up around your house. A great game to play would be "Teacher, May I." Instruct the children on what items they have to put away. The children who are being hard headed will see the other children having fun and will come to help with the mess.
Be Silly
Small children are more apt to listening if they are having fun and laughing because it basically tricks their minds into thinking that they are playing instead of working. If you want the children in your care to listen more often, be silly with your requests. For example, if one of your children is not listening to sit in the circle for story time, ask the children to walk to the circle backwards. You can ask one of the children to hop on one foot to the story circle. Ask another child to make silly faces while skipping to the story circle. The child that is having a difficult time listening will see the other children having fun and being silly and will follow suit.
Not all kids are created equal, so chances are you will run into one or two that have a difficult time listening. All is not lost. There are several ways to get a child to listen to you without losing your cool. By using one of the suggestions listed above, not only will you get the children to listen to you, you will be providing a fun and exciting environment for all of them, like at a child care business such as Kaye Kare Child Care Center.
Share21 April 2016
Welcome to my blog. My name is Eddie, and I love to talk about technology, but I also love old fashioned fun. That includes anything, from playing hopscotch, to telling stories, to knitting, to gardening. I have three grand kids, and I see them immersed in an exciting world where they can explore those old fashioned things but also immerse themselves in technology. It truly doesn't have to be one or the other. I am very interested in child care centers that have found interesting ways to blend both of these categories. I wanted to foray a bit more into the tech world myself so decided to create this blog. I hope you like its ideas and facts.