Actions speak louder than words

A few weeks ago I talked about a child who ran when we were trying to come inside.  Yesterday his twin decided to do the same thing.  She wasn’t relenting like him, however.  She continued to run…in the rain..and wasn’t slowing down.

Eventually I approached very non-threatening so that she wouldn’t run (I did have to make three approaches before being successful).  When I finally got my opportunity, I took her hand and walked towards the door.  Yes, she struggled against me…I picked her up.

She was still giggling and thinking that she got away with a lot of fun.  I wanted to make sure she didn’t get an audience for her behavior so I went the long way around to avoid going in the classroom.

When I got to the bathroom to wash her hands, she was still giggling and smiling.

I hadn’t said one word to her the entire time.

We finished washing her hands, I took off her jacked, and took away her toy pen that was hanging around her neck…she finally got it and the tears started!

I walked her into the office and sat her on the chair…and waited.

Note, I still hadn’t said one single word.  I didn’t need to because she knew exactly what she had done.

How do I know?  Because when she finally got done with the major tears and was sitting there beginning to feel sorry for herself, I said, “Why are you in the office?”

“Because I ran.”

Yep, she got it. 

Sometimes we say too much.  Sometimes we have to let that conscience do its work for us.  You don’t need words all the time.

She got it.  I explained to her the issue of safety if she doesn’t listen to the teachers.  We went back to the classroom and I had her ask the teacher, “I’m ready to listen, can I come back?”

Now, someone might think I went against my philosophy of not bringing children to the office.  Wrong.  See, she was not listening to me and I brought her in.  I wasn’t taking anyone’s authority away; no one was giving me their authority.  I remained the authority figure from the beginning and I passed my authority to the teacher in the end.

So, have you ever disciplines with no words?