Day 59: Love & Logic

A few months ago, our youth program staff began a series of training seminars titled "Love & Logic." The premise of the seminars was to reduce stress on adults and to have more fun, while still raising responsible kids. Children know what buttons to push to get their way, and they certainly use them. L&L's aim is to reduce backtalk and arguments between children and adults, and help children solve their own problems without much adult interference/help.

I must admit--at first, I was highly skeptical of L&L. Many of the things we were taught went against (what we thought was) common sense. However, a few weeks into the six-week course, it dawned on me--this was so much easier than our old ways! L&L teaches adults how to help children fix their own problems and make their own disciplinary actions without us having to stress about how to discipline a child.

The following is copied from the L&L website:
When adults take care of themselves, they hand the problem back to the student who created it.
When the student has to solve the problem, they have to think.
When students have to think, they learn that decisions have consequences.
When students have to deal with consequences, they learn to think.
When we allow the student to deal with the consequences, they learn to think before they cause a problem.
When the student learns to ask themselves, "How is my behavior going to affect me?" they have learned self control.

As I said before, I was skeptical. Today was our last Love & Logic meeting as a wrap-up for any last questions or comments, and we all looked around the room and realized how much we have reduced the stress level in our facility for staff and children alike. Honestly, before, there were days that I hated going to work because I knew some of our kids would be argumentative and I just didn't want to deal with it. Now, we all have the ammunition (so to speak) under our belts to deal with situations and diffuse the problems quickly.

To those who are planning on being teachers or who already are--check out Love & Logic. It's amazing.

To all of the AYP staff...
That's a bummer!