Conscious Discipline

We are always looking for ways to define what we practice at Riviera PlaySchool. What we have is a unique meld of non violent communication, attachment parenting, mindfulness, abundance, gratitude, and self-awareness, along with the academic and structural aspects from Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio Emilia.
I stumbled across a website by a woman named Becky Bailey, who happens to have authored a great description of what we do here at Riviera Playschool! Becky calls it conscious discipline, and it all starts with being who you want your children to become (Joseph Chilton Pearce).

Letter to my Child

Dear Kian, As you prepare for kindergarten, I wanted to write a letter to you, my love, to document my hopes for you, my love for you, and my admiration of you. I hope you will live in a world of peace, nature, community, egalitarianism, and high ideals.

I want you to be fulfilled and happy, and value the importance of life’s simple pleasures. This is where you will find true bliss.

Just today you said to me “I believe anything is possible,” and with that, I felt I had achieved the bulk of my intentions with you.

The “No Child Left Behind” Paradox

Today’s kids are not failing the academic standards – the academic standards are failing our kids! “No Child Left Behind” has inadvertently placed undue emphasis on elements that have nothing to do with academic success. The entire system has instead created a generation of button-pushers who lack critical thinking skills as well as the emotional and social intelligence to get their needs met independently. We have to take another critical look at this system before we churn out yet another generation of unmotivated, unskilled, and incapable graduates.

“NO!” is a Development-Stopping Word….

Exclaiming “No!” to stop a child works!

It is guaranteed to stop a child in his tracks and turn their happy, healthy, neuron-growing science exploration into a tirade of tears in seconds.

So what do we do instead?

Our Brains are Wired for Empathy…

“Empathy is the invisible hand….that entends human consciousness”

Study finds that effects of low-quality child care last into adolescence

Federally funded study found obedience and academic problems among those who received low-quality care in their first 4 1/2 years of life, and the potential for lifelong difficulties.

It’s Never too Early to Reason With a Child

Non Violent Communication, and reasoning (rather than punishing) “works” no matter what the age!  Each child in a conflict learns what they can from it! There are a number of techniques you can use to help children of diverse ages in conflict. When two children are arguing over the same toy, for example, we first [...]

What do "Shutter Island" and non violent communication have in common?

My husband (my best buddy) and I went out to see Shutter Island last night. Oh my gosh it was shocking. I was not up for it. But very well done. If you love superbly fine actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ben Kingsley, and you crave the psychological thrill of Alfred Hitchcock, the cinematography of [...]