My daughter, Lucy, is almost 5 years old. She has been reading very well for what seems like forever. We have recently had some discipline issues that are just “smart mouth” answers or comments she makes she hears elsewhere. They are age-related, but we don’t like having to yell or say no and explain all the time. The answer is nearly always the same and we want to keep the answers simple.
One of the ideas we are incorporating into our daily life is called “Lucy’s Reminder Binder”. This binder consists of small hole drilled index cards. I use the same type of card folio or binder for my genealogy research. Lucy and I are working on writing this binder together and each card says something she is supposed to do or a rule if you want to call them rules. For example, the first one is one of the first things we thought of – “Always say please and thank you.” We all forget this all the time so Lucy will go to her binder and read this card and see a few examples and any definitions she may not understand involving the rule.
Obviously things will be added as we remember them or incidents arise and that is the beauty of the binder – we can add cards if we run out. Another plus of the binder is we can carry it with us in a purse or backpack for easy reference. The goal is to have the child look up the rules and learn how to find the answers to the questions they have about their behavior and to discover definitions to words that may be foreign, like RESPECT!
What do you think?