Many of us especially parents with pre-school children would have heard of Julia Gabriel, Founder and Creative Director of Julia Gabriel Education. She is a renowned early childhood educator. Julia Gabriel also runs Chiltern House, a prominent chain of pre-school centres in Singapore.
Our Parenting World team is happy to be invited to an exclusive parenting workshop personally conducted by Julia Gabriel, herself at Julia Gabriel Centre. This parenting workshop provides useful tips to parents on how to manage children using positive discipline.
At the Positive Discipline Workshop, we would discover:
- Parenting style that empowers, encourages and lays foundation for learning
- Explore authoritarian vs permissive parenting
- Establish guidelines, boundaries and encouraging practices at home
- Tips on getting the whole family on board in a culture of positive discipline.
Julia started the session first by asking parents what type of characteristics they would like to see their children grow up to be when they are in their teens, twenties and forties. Words like “confident, mature, compassionate, respectful and friendly” were mentioned by the parents. Julia said that parents would need to build up these traits when the children are young, and this is where positive discipline comes in.
The skill of parenting is an art. It has to be in a nice balance, not too strict that the child would rebel or lost respect to the parents nor too lenient and spoil the child. The right balance is in a way to provide the right guidance and set up necessary parameters for the child to follow and to continuously praise them when they are doing well.
There are 5 steps in positive discipline which are:
- Understand your child
- Recognise the difference between discipline and punishment
- Aim for cooperation than obedience
- Develop a toolbox for positive parenting
- Take action
If a child misbehaves, some parents may resort to punishment to correct him/her. This is not the right strategy in positive discipline because punishment would build up resentment in the child and he/she may grow up to be insecure and prone to use of violence.
Instead, what parents should do is to explain to the child, that his/her bad behaviour is not acceptable and to put the child in a “time-off” zone to correct him/her.
When parents encountered difficult situations like getting the child to sleep, the use of positive discipline is to set up clear and consistent expectations to the child and prepare him/her to sleep at least half an hour before bedtime. Get the child into a routine like brushing his/her teeth and having a cup of milk before the child goes to sleep. Once the child gets into a routine and understands that his/her parents expect him/her to go to bed after a routine, the child will normally follow without any problem.
Di Di having fun with his friends and teachers.
Story-telling session
Di Di working on his activity book.
Di Di with Fiona Walker. Principal of Julia Gabriel Centre & Chiltern House, Singapore.
While parents were having the sharing session with Julia Gabriel, our children were being well taken care of by Julia Gabriel Education’s team of caring teachers and staff.
Overall, the workshop is useful and informative, it provides parents with practical tips on how to manage our children using positive discipline. For parents, who are interested to attend the workshops, you can find information of the coming workshops at their website: www.juliagabriel.com.
