What stood out to me about this method was the concept of looking at the underlying need of the child that caused them to misbehave and correcting the situation on that level. For instance are they bored?? curious?? tired?? hungry?? in need of some fresh air and outdoor play??
I feel like I have a long way to go yet, but here are a couple of ways we have embraced the concept of gentle discipline so far.......
Jacinda's destuctive digging in the Vegetable Garden (including our first EVER nearly-ripe strawberry getting picked off the plant!!) was caused by her wanting to join in all the fun and be just like Mama and Daddy. So, an old nail box from Junk and Disorderly for $1 has now been transformed in to her own garden. If she happens to dig up the vegetables again, all we need to do is remind her that she can do gardening too, by picking the dandelions off the lawn and 'planting' them in her own garden.
This lovely crayon drawing on our chair happened out of a genuine desire to create, not to intentionally 'disobey'. I knew this would happen one day so we purposely choose to solely allow crayons for drawing as opposed to anything else that stains. That way, we can encourage drawing on paper, but shall any accidents happen, we won't lose our temper.
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Discipline aside, I haven't washed this off since it happened a few days ago because.... I actually like the innocence of her artwork and it reminds me of a phrase in The Idle Parent Manifesto ....
'Happy mess is better than miserable tidiness'
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