I've just been reading the great posts on the thread about a 10 year old's behaviour. There's some really interesting stuff on there about how you encourage independence, taking responsibility for their actions, being a kind and considerate member of the family, looking after their things.
It's made me think about the kind of things I expect from my 5 year old son and what I can do to encourage some of the above. Obviously he's a lot younger than the children discussed in the thread I was reading but I think it's never too early to start instilling good habits, yes?
Here are the kind of things we do or don't do at the moment.
We have a set of five or so 'house rules' which we have agreed together including things like
'we are kind to other people'
'we speak in a normal voice when we want to be listened to'(had a phase of shouting!)
'We look after our things'(ie don't deliberately trash toys when we are cross, try not to leave things where they will get lost/ broken).
We do pasta jar for good behaviour and he gets money for the number of pieces he has in there, every Sat.
I don't particularly encourage ds to do anything around the house although he sometimes offers and I try and make it fun when he helps. Should I be giving him little jobs to do?
I tidy his room up although he helps me sometimes. I don't particularly get cross when it's a mess. Should I?
I sort out all his stuff for school (he's just finishing Reception) and even carry his bags there for him.
What do you expect from your 5-6 year old?