Tattling vs. Reporting

Today's lesson of the day was "Tattling vs. Reporting". It's day three of "daily lessons" which I have incorporated into our daily schedule. I don't know how orderly I will be about maintaining this, however, we have a LOT we need to talk about as a group, so for now, it will be pretty frequently.

We come into the room after snack, first thing, and sit together on the carpet. Rather than sitting on a chair and lecturing at them, I, too, sit criss-cross apple sauce on the carpet with them, and we all talk together. It's been really cool, actually. They've been really receptive to it and are very talkative and responsive to the questions I pose and topics I share.

Yesterday, as a reminder, our topic was "Being Kind", and the day before was "Be the Best Me I Can Be". It's so great to see kids actually putting these things into practice. The past few days this one boy in particular, has been going up to kids who aren't listening, putting his hand on their shoulder and saying, "hey! be the best you can be!" It's awesome and I love it.

Today, we discussed tattling vs. reporting. I introduced this new system to them, where if they come up to me and are tattling (over unimportant matters that they can solve on their own but are coming to me with the intention of getting their classmates in trouble), they will get a little "monster" sticker put in an envelope with their name on it. No one wants to be a tattle-monster. If they come up to me reporting (over important matters that they need adult help to solve, when there is a situation that is harmful, unsafe, or threatening), they get a smiley face sticker. I keep track. They must work on this daily, weekly and monthly as well. We set the goals and talked about what they would lose or miss out on if they had more monsters (computers, Fun Friday, etc.) and what they could work towards (getting Fun Friday back--weekly--and a fun prize come May) with more happy stickers. 

I'm sure I will have to remind them of this new system every day, however, today there was already progress.  A girl looked at me and was like "Misss!! He just..." and I looked at her, and right away she covered her mouth and didn't finish her tattling. THANK GOODNESS because I cannot stand the amount of tattling that goes on. But she made a better choice not to continue on, so that was a happy moment indeed.

I love the life lessons, and I hope, if anything, they remember these things and maybe will use them in life as they grow older. 

:) 


Sidenotes: We finally got our car fixed and picked up on Monday. We were hoping the new part would stop the smoking from the hood. Welp, it smoked again today. I bought coolant, had it put in,and was hoping THAT would solve it. Turns out we were empty on it, oops, but even after filling it, it was still smoking from the hood. So..that's annoying...

But, on a brighter note, went to Zumba again today. Hollaaa. Great workout :)