discipline..

we are standing at a very start of our homeschooling journey...even before i started officially teaching my son, the major issue raised by many of people, was teaching "DISCIPLINE" to the kid. it happens to stand at no.1 in our indian context !!

i tried to define it, but couldn't arrive at a unanimous definition. found so many variants. it differed person to person. prominant aspects were - listening to parents, learning good manners, hard work....etc.etc.

raising a child is as complex as it appears to be simple !!
Discipline is about behaviour and developing a certain behaviour takes time to evolve or change.

you tell them generalised rules, they will be the most confused lot !! unless you specifically mention what you expect out of them, they wont understand. so i understood my lesson - ONE SHOULD NOT GET DISAPPOINTED/UPSET WITH FEW ASPECTS OF CHILD'S BEHAVIOUR ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU SEE THEM FOR FIRST FEW TIMES !!

only that you need to tell them what is the right way of doing it.

another lesson i learnt on the way "PREACHERS SHOULD FOLLOW THE SET RULES THEMSELVES FIRST"
kids are all the time watching and observing you. what you do, they are going to enact the same at certain point of time.

yeah but at the same time, excess of discipline is going to ruin the child !! he might become too obedient (read spoon-fed), or rebellient due to so many restrictions. so prioratising the behavioural patterns you expect is a must...so it definitely is not a smooth walk...but a rope walk !!

that boy...

yesterday i happened to see a kid, hardly 7-8 years old, who was crossing the street. that too he was carrying a baby, presumably his younger sibling, not even a year old. at first, i got scared. then i realised he was smart enough to check on both the sides for vehicles before crossing. i was amused and thought of his parents immediately. i saw around and placed the parents, who were sitting across the road. they looked like a couple, working on a road side construction site.

i wonder who taught this boy of illiterate couple, to cross the road so confidently and systematically. and look at us, we are afraid to send our kids alone even in neighbourhood garden...and we call us literate/educated or whatever !!!