This post will deal with my expertise in establishing rules in a child care setting. Like everything else in life, getting children to follow rules takes time and effort. Just putting a rules display on the wall will only get you brownie points for displays on an assessment scale. To create an environment where children actually follow the rules takes a multi-front effort.
The Rules Display
Let's start this discussion with the typical rules display. Most of us have a copy of our classroom rules on the wall. If you don't have a copy of the classroom rules, this is an excellent place to start. For a preschool setting the rules should be short and to the point with not more than 5 or 6 rules. However, put good thought into the wording of the rules. They should not be so specific that four year olds will find loopholes and yet not so vague that they are hard to enforce. Never underestimate the ability of four year olds to find loopholes in your classroom rules. When that happens, you will need to reword your rules. Finding workable rules is about a 6 month process. Many experts will tell you that you should allow the children to help with the setting of the classroom rules. This can be good and bad. It is true that the children will initially be more willing to follow the rules if they help make them, but this won't last forever. Also, I have a problem with children only being willing to follow rules that they help create. When they hit public school, they will have to follow many rules they had no say in making. They need some experience with this before they get there. If you do allow the children to help set the rules, you need to have a good sense of what the rules need to be in the beginning and gently guide the conversation in the way it needs to go. Many times four year olds will actually help with the wording because they will foresee the loopholes, but there will be some concepts the children may avoid on purpose that you will have to bring up.
A Daily Process
Now that you have the classroom rules written and displayed on the wall, what do you do with them? This is the most important question. If all you do is create the display, it will be a waste of time. If all you do is read the rules occasionally, it will be basically a waste of time. Teaching rules is a daily process. I have a time built into my schedule for daily rule instruction. Each day we take one of our general rules and discuss it. We do more than just read the rule. If all you are doing is reading the rule, you are having a language lesson and not a rule lesson. Children need to understand why that rule is necessary. They need to be told what happens when they break that rule. For example, one of our rules is "no toys on the tile." Someone who is unfamiliar with our facility would think that is a silly rule. However, our facility has two different types of flooring. We have wood flooring in all the rooms where the children play. We have tile in the kitchen, dining room, and bathrooms. Toys need to stay out of the kitchen, dining room, and bathrooms. Those are not places toys should be. When we talk about that rule, I ask them why we need to keep the toys off of the tile. I help them understand the sanitary reasons behind that rule as well as the tripping hazard reasons. It helps to maintain that rule when I bring in the yuck factor of what can be on the floor of kitchens and bathrooms.
The Other Sets of Rules
Up until this point I have only discussed general classroom rules, and that is where you need to begin. It is not where the process ends, however. Many centers have their own set of rules that need to be maintained. For example, art areas must have their own set of rules unless you want absolute chaos. If you have an indoor sensory area, that center will need its own set of rules. Also, the everyday routines will have their own "rules" that go with them. All of these different sets of rules also need attention regularly. In my daily rule instruction I rotate all these different sets of rules as well as doing the one general rule each day. For example, one of the rotations is on paper towels and toilet paper. We had serious issues with the children wasting both of these items. Therefore, when I have this particular discussion, we talk about how to use the paper towels correctly, how many towels to get at one time, how much toilet paper to get at one time, and where both types of paper are thrown away. We actually flush the toilet paper instead of putting it in the trash. Having this discussion regularly makes it exponentially easier to handle this routine on a daily basis. If they break the rule, many times their peers will correct them long before I can even say anything. I also incorporate basic behavior rules in the rotation as well. One of the rotations is on the difference between tattling and reporting. Tattling is trying to get someone in trouble. Whereas, reporting deals with situations that are dangerous or involve injury. We discuss different scenarios as to whether that would be tattling or reporting. This has greatly cut down the amount of tattling we have. For your information the following is a list of the rotations we do on a regular basis - art center rules, puzzles, sensory table rules, 3 room (this room is for children 3 years and older and has its own set of rules), the difference between tattling and reporting, rules for meals and snacks, the difference between inside and outside voices, how to use paper towels and toilet paper, and the difference between pretending and lying. The rules you choose to include in this rotation should reflect the issues you have in your facility.
Words of Wisdom
Finally, let me give some words of wisdom. Anything you try to establish in a child care setting takes 6-9 months. Many people give up on good ideas because they do not see immediate results. For the first month or so it will seem like you are making no progress whatsoever. However, keep after it. There will come that moment when you start to correct a child and one of his/her peers beats you to it. Then after a couple more months you will realize you are correcting the children less and less. The true test comes when you start a new child and realize how much the other children are helping the process along instead of hindering. Then you will know the full value of training children to follow the rules.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
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