The New House Rules

Ian starts at Montessori on Monday! I'm very, very excited for him because I know this is a match made in heaven. The school, the staff, my child, and most importantly, the Montessori Method are going to be the positive equivalent of The Perfect Storm. I am really excited to see how much he changes over the course of the next nine months. I'm certain it will be absolutely astounding! I'm even more curious to see how our family, as a whole, changes over the next nine months. I'm sure that change will be even more astounding!

I want to make sure that we do as much as possible at home to reinforce what is going on at school. Luckily, the staff at the school will come to your home, look everything over, and then tell you changes to make to adapt your home life to make it align with the teachings of Maria Montessori. I'm looking forward to this, although, I must admit I'm slightly apprehensive to find all of the things that will need to change. Eek!

To get us started in that direction, I recently rewrote our house rules which means Cole and I are also adapting to a new parenting "format" (I don't know what word to use). We are trying to eliminate "no" and "don't" from our corrections and instead correct the boys' behavior with a positive statement.

For example:
Instead of saying, "Don't yell in the house," we are saying "Use a gentle voice in the house."

"No running in the house" becomes "Go slowly in the house."


We also went from six house rules to just three. And the three house rules cover EVERYTHING! It's short, simple, easy to remember, and most excitingly, positive! I feel like much less of a nag with this new reinforcement, which of course, I love! I rewrote the house rules, placed them on the fridge at the boys' eye level, and went over them this morning.


Ian immediately CRACKED UP and said, "Look at that funny corn!" Ok. So I can't draw very well, but that isn't the point. Look at how simple, yet thorough, the rules are. I'm in love, and sounding a lot less like a nag these days.