It seems that my husband and I are always discussing what the punishment should be for our children for certain behaviors. Our boys are 7 and 10 and probably not unlike most kids at their age. They are very active. They love to play sports, play with their friends and love their electronics. The most re-occurring crimes at our house seem to be disrespectful tone of voice towards parents and siblings, inability to listen and deliberate sibling irritation. At school my 5^th grader has perfect behavior and my 2^nd grader is searching for his place by showing off for which I have received several notes from the teacher.

We have tried all forms of punishment (or would it be more correct to say consequences)? We have banned electronics. Sent the kids to their rooms. Washed their mouths out with whatever (within reason) is available. Kept them from playing with friends. Made them write 50 times “I will not . . . “

I am shocked at how many well-educated parents do not require their children to wear bike helmets. A lot of these parents are actually my friends. At my house my children know that wearing a helmet while riding a bike or scooter, or skating is absolutely required! This is not one of those topics up for debate.

I have a friend who is an emergency room nurse and she explained it to my children like this: “you can fix most of your body parts if they are injured, but you can’t fix your brain.”

One thing I love about elementary school is that as parents you can pretty much choose whom your children play with and whom they don’t. I am not a control freak by any means but I do think if we can help our kids make good choices about friends at an early age they will recognize qualities to look for in friends, as they get older.

I loved kindergarten and first grade when there were so many opportunities to go into your children’s classroom. I loved to see the kids in action! You can learn a lot about kids that age from being in the classroom for an hour. The kids I would hear about at home were usually the real class terrors! These were not the kids I encouraged to invite over to our house. It seems like you hear more about the bad kids than you do the good kids. I guess this isn’t so different from other things in life . . . hearing the negative more often than the positive. The polite well-behaved kids were the ones I would encourage to invite to our house.