Oakland, CA
BlueSkies for Children formerly AOCS

Discipline

OVERALL RATING (5.0)

Parents at this school, on average, believe that conflicts between children:
...are handled extraordinarily well in a way that not only gives me confidence in the safety of my child but also reassures me that my child (and his/her peers) are learning the early skills needed to socialize effectively with one another

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Director's Description to School's Approach to Discipline

Discipline is always seen as an opportunity to help children learn more effective strategies for solving interpersonal problems in the future.

Depending on the age of the child, the strategies are more or less complex, and of course for the youngest children the teachers understand that the children cannot developmentally stop themselves; it is up to the teachers to keep everyone safe.

As the children can manage it, the teachers provide information about what went wrong ('Sue didn't like being pushed') as well as what would be a better approach ('Next time you can ask her to move'). This includes helping children learn to say what they need, as well as listening to others' needs.

If an older child is simply having a hard day, not able to play successfully with others, the teachers will help him find a quiet activity by himself until he re-centers; the message to the child is 'It's best to play alone when you can't manage yourself' rather than 'You're a bad boy' -- we want the children to learn successful life strategies rather than to feel bad about themselves.

Director's Response to a Sample Discipline Scenario

Description of how teachers handle the following scenario: Child A and Child B are good friends and usually play together. One day, Child A decides to play with Child C and tells Child B, 'I don't want to play with you today. I'm playing with Child C instead.'


Honoring each child's choices is an important way to help the child learn who he is; therefore teachers would always support both children in such a situation. The child who is excluded also learns valuable lessons in how to work with other children and how to accept other people's decisions - it's important to learn that he cannot control others, but only himself. Teachers would acknowledge Child B's hurt feelings, saying something like 'You and Child A have so much fun together that you'd like to play with her now, but I hear her saying she's going to play with Child C now. You can tell Child A that you'd like to play with her later. Would you like to play by yourself or look for somebody else to play with right now?'

Parents' Notes on Discipline, Health and Safety

Parent #1
AOCS provides a fabulous facility from play structures & toys geared to the age/coordination of the child to home cooked organic meals.

Parent #2
none

Parent #3
A home-like environment -- not institutional at all.

Health

OVERALL RATING (4.9)
Temperature and overall air circulation is comfortable
Healthy and nutritious snacks are provided More >
Toys and furniture are cleaned regularly

source:

Safety

OVERALL RATING (4.9)
Screen and identify all visitors
Parents may not bring sick children to school where they may infect others

source:

Montessori? Waldorf? Play-based?

What school type is right for your child? Is one model better than another? What does the research say?

View an example from the Savvy Source guide to learn more.

Trace around your child's foot, with shoe on, on a piece of white construction paper or card stock. Have child cut out the shoe print and add a spooky face. Glue it to a popsicle stick and you have a ghost stick puppet!

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