Jamesican Posted July 20, 2015 Posted July 20, 2015 Hello! I work at a summer camp as a counselor for children 3-4 years of age. I don't really think children that young should even be at a summer camp for as long as they are (4-6 hours, Monday-Friday), but that's beside the point. A few of the children I work with misbehave constantly. One 4 year-old girl goes to the camp's office everyday for touching other campers, not listening, etc. I could really use some advice on how to discipline the campers effectively. I don't really think time-outs and other measures of the sort do anything, and I've tried explaining why what they did is not okay, but they don't take anything away from that either. Some advice would be great, thanks in advance!
Anuojat Posted July 20, 2015 Posted July 20, 2015 Why are they doiong these things? Maybe offering a consistently honest approach to them would help? Like you would keep pushing on the why and insist and prove to them that theyre honest will not be punished and waht they feel is bad. But somethign that should be honestly shared and considered.
neeeel Posted July 20, 2015 Posted July 20, 2015 why do you want to discipline them? Are they actually doing anything wrong? I dont necessarily think that touching other campers, or not listening, is wrong doing. It may be labelled as that by the other counsellors though. unless its a safety issue, I see no reason why they should listen to you. I doubt 3 or 4 year olds really know why they are doing what they do , a lot of the time. Not that you shouldnt ask them, or listen to them, but that the answer they give may be just the first thing that comes into their head. when you are explaining that what they are doing is wrong, what do you tell them? What reasoning do you follow? can you give some examples of what you have explained?
PatrickC Posted July 22, 2015 Posted July 22, 2015 Yes, looking at this situation from afar philosophically, it would seem you have placed yourself between a rock and a hard place. Essentially your job is to manage these children in an enviroment of their parents choice. This in all liklihood will conflict with many of the wishes and desires of the children themselves. So logically speaking I think some acting up from some of the children is to be expected. My only suggestion would be to try and communicate personally with those chidren to see whether you can meet some of their needs. Also ask them what part of summer camp do they least enjoy and why. In so doing as to make their experience of summer camp as enjoyable as possible for them, but empathising with them that they might be finding themselves in an enviroment not of their choice. Approaching this problem as a discipline one is too miss the disparity the child can feel in such an enviroment. 1 1
Jamesican Posted July 30, 2015 Author Posted July 30, 2015 I dont necessarily think that touching other campers, or not listening, is wrong doing. It may be labelled as that by the other counsellors though. unless its a safety issue, I see no reason why they should listen to you.Perhaps I should clarify on what I mean by touching and not listening. Touching includes grabbing and hitting. I don't care if they hug each other, but it's really a safety issue when one of them hits another very hard. When I say they're not listening, I mean they don't listen to me telling them not to touch each other, or they'll wander off unsupervised.
Recommended Posts