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Empowering Young Minds: Positive Discipline’s Wheel of Choice

In the world of early childhood education, empowering children with important social and life skills is paramount. One powerful tool in achieving this is the "Wheel of Choice". This simple yet effective tool can be used both in the classroom and at home to foster decision-making skills and emotional regulation in young children.

In the symphony of parenting and teaching, the melody of empowerment plays a crucial role. Dr. Maria Montessori's wisdom guides us: "The secret of good teaching is to regard the child's intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination." As we raise capable kids, we discover the transformative power of teaching practical life skills through joyful and purposeful routines.

We have become vividly aware of how skilled most of us are in using enabling responses with our children, and how unskilled we are in using empowering responses. Our definition of enabling is, ʺGetting between young people and life experiences to minimize the consequences of their choices.ʺ

Rudolf Dreikurs taught the importance of being both kind and firm in our relations with children. Kindness is important in order to show respect for the child. Firmness is important in order to show respect for ourselves and for the needs of the situation. Authoritarian methods usually lack kindness. Permissive methods lack firmness. Kindness and firmness are essential for Positive Discipline.

I received an email from a person who wondered about the differences between the many Positive Discipline books. My guess is that many people have the same question so I created this very brief thumbnail description.

An excerpt from Positive Discipline by Dr. Jane Nelsen

Mutual respect incorporates attitudes of: (1) faith in the abilities of yourself and others; (2) interest in the point of view of others as well as your own; and (3) willingness to take responsibility and ownership for your own contribution to the problem. The best way to teach these attitudes to children is by modeling them. You will see how the concepts of timing and winning cooperation can be merged with the concept of mutual respect.

The majority of discipline models practiced in homes and schools today are based on punishments and rewards. Positive Discipline is based on the Adlerian model of eliminating all punishment and rewards in favor of encouragement that addresses the basic needs of children to belong and feel significant. Our task is to help children find belonging and significance in socially useful ways.

So, my 2 year old (25.5 months old) has been giving me such a rough time with diaper changes. She has always been wiggly, even as a baby, and we do cloth diapers so it takes that much longer to get them on her... Lately it has been awful, where she ends up running around naked for 30 min or more after bath time because I just canNOT capture her long enough to get her diaper and/or jammies on. (And we have tried potty training, but she is just not ready.)

Class meetings invite students to learn by doing. They provide the practice arena for all of the skills necessary to grow citizens who are responsible, respectful and resourceful members of the community.

The Positive Discipline vision is about schools where children never experience humiliation when they fail but instead feel empowered by the opportunity to learn from their mistakes in a safe environment. Many of the social and emotional skills students learn are represented in the Significant Seven Perceptions and Skills.

Empowering Young Minds: Positive Discipline’s Wheel of Choice

Growing Capable Kids: Teaching Daily Life Skills with Joy using Positive Discipline in a Montessori Setting

Empowering Vs. Enabling

Kindness and Firmness at the Same Time

The Positive Discipline Books

Mutual Respect in the Classroom

HOW IS POSITIVE DISCIPLINE DIFFERENT?

Don’t Back-Talk Back: A Nanny Perspective

Positive Discipline Success Story - "I Need Your Help"

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