Nursery Discipline Policy?

[Tissy]

DD (2) has come home from nursery with a sheet explaining the discipline policy, and I have a few problems with it, and wondered what you thought....

Now I don't have the sheet with me for reference, but the idea is that each child is given "opportunities for good behaviour", and if they don't behave well over several of these opportunities, then they have to sit out of a part of "Golden Time", which is a half-hour during the afternoon when "special" toys are brought out to play with.

Does anyone else's nursery have this? It seems like the sort of idea that has been imported, rather than made up from scratch! I can see that the basic idea is "time out" for bad behaviour, but I'm bothered that at 2-3 years old, they won't
be able to make the connection between bad behaviour in the morning, and the time out in the afternoon. Wouldn't it be better to have the "time out" at the time of the bad behaviour? And what constitutes bad behaviour in a 2 year old? Dd is pretty good at saying please and thankyou most of the time, but sometimes forgets, I wouldn't want her punished for that. Snatching toys, not taking turns- well I wouldn't say that waas too bad, and is likely to get better with age. Hitting other children? I would want that behaviour corrected at the time, not left till later.

Anyone have any experience of this? Bit rambly I know. I'm going to talk to the girl in charge of dd's room this pm, but wanted to trawl the MN experience first!

I agree with you Tissy. You wouldn't find a sensible childminder using such a system. It doesn't seem to allow for each child's individuality and stage of development, or allow scope for personal interpretetion.
It may just be a static policy for the sake of having on which bears no ressemblance to actual practise. You should be able to guage the nursery's stance when you talk to them. But It would get my hackles up too - like you say it is not appropriate for 2-3yr olds at all.

I agree.
My dds old nursery had a time out policay but it was implemented at the time not at a set time in the afternoon. And was for serious episodes of disobedience (continually refusing to do what you were told, hitting etc).
Even so I didn't really like it. Her current nursery school takes the approach that they sit down with the child, discuss why their behaviour is unacceptable and punish if necessary by withdrawal of some of a "treat" part of the day, but makiong the link very obvious.
An amusing side effect of the old policy though was that we would sometimes come downstairs to find all dds dolls and toys lined up in the hall as they'd all been put on time out for being naughty

Yes sounds a bit old fashioned. Our childminder insists that my two are always good for her. I think it's because she is so lovely, even I want to be extra good for her.

Current favorite is dd (18 mo.) disciplining ds (3.5 years). She tells him off and wags her finger at him...looks just like me 39 years ago.

Sounds bizarre. Suitable for 5 year olds, not for 2 year olds. I wouldn't send my child to a nursery which implemented that policy, but as other contributors have said, sometimes practice bears no relation to policy, so it's worth having a chat with the staff to find out what happens in the real world.