My daughter, 6 and in Kindergarten, just got her first report card. She's doing well academically, but she's having behavior issues. Anyone have any suggestions for us at home on how to help her to learn how to listen and obey and do as she's told?
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Well as long as it just showed up on the report card, and you're not getting calls or emails from the teacher, I wouldn't worry about it too much, it must not be that serious.
Just talk to her about it, remind her to try to do her best to sit still, listen, share, take turns, be patient, etc.
Most likely it's just a matter of maturity. If not, the teacher WILL be calling you at some point, and the two of you can work together to help your daughter control whatever impulses she is having.
Hi D.,
My kids are teens now, but I work with first and second graders. My suggestion is to work with her teacher and find out what the behavioral/
consequence sytem is there, and the rules. Then follow similar rules at home. If she doesn't listen to you the first time, right to time out. If she interrupts while you are speaking, right to time out. I know that many parents do not mean to encourage bad behaviors in kids, and I don't know that you are, but sometimes the things that are tolerated at home because they don't seem like a big deal are not acceptable in the classroom with 20-25 kids doing those things. Try to follow the same rules, and have consequences when the rules are broken.
Depends on her personality, really. My daughter had quite a few "yellow" days in kindergarten, too. (They are graded green for good days, yellow for "made poor choices" days, and red...well, if they get a red, you already know, because it meant the teacher or principal had to call you...)
My daughter has a very, very logical mind. If you do not explain the rules to her, and WHY they exist, then she will not follow them. If she knows there is a reason for the rules, and the reason makes sense, then she is okay. For instance, once we explained that when the teacher blows her whistle you have to leave the playground because if you don't leave quickly you will miss the next activity of the day, that made sense to her, and the teacher didn't have anymore problems with recess time after that. Ditto with needing to be quiet in the hallway, so it doesn't disturb kids in other classrooms who are trying to read. And so on and so on. We found it really helpful to find out WHICH rules were being broken, and working on those specifically, instead of attempting a general, "you have to follow rules."
This year, we requested a teacher who would be willing to explain the rules to her. And haven't had a problem yet.
We use a color chart system .It works well for all the kids from young to older and they are responsible for themself. Example:
Everone starts out on Green----good morning color
then if you misbehave, you get one warning, then you go to Yellow if your still not listening. Then after that if you still do something horrible/ not listen etc then you go to red. Red is your "Im on fire angry, upset or out of control. This color warants talking to mom about what went wrong and how you are going to change it. Then you take a "TIME AWAY" and spend as much time as you need to "FEEL BETTER". This is not punishment. Its meant to teach so they get control of their feelings etc
Ok then for the reward side---if you are at green when you start out, you can go to purple which is the best color and you set up whatever reward system you want for that color--lots of praise etc.
We simply tell our children when they are not listening etc, the color and to move their clip up or down etc. It really helps.
ask the teacher to put her on behavior chart so at the end of the week to have her either get something as reward for good behavior or get something taken away
My son is having the same exact problem in kindergarten, so this post is very helpful...thank you. He is perfect academically and even scores higher than others, but he is having behavior issues. I agree with one of the posts that it's a maturity thing. We keep reminding him and depending on what he is doing wrong will determine if he gets a lecture or a punishment. I think the most important thing is that my son is doing perfect academically. And talk to the teacher. My son's kindergarten teacher sends me a note when he does something bad and what he did wrong. I've even had a phone call from the teacher. I know it's because he is bored. He has no patience waiting in line, etc. And he finishes very fast with his homework. Faster than when my daughter was his age. It may be that your daughter is bored in class. Talk to the teacher :)
drop in on the class
