Customer Reviews

Positive Discipline for Preschoolers: For Their Early Years--Raising Children Who are Responsible, Respectful, and Resourceful (Positive Discipline Library)

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When my first daughter was born in May of 2006, my husband and I agreed we wanted to find a discipline method that fit our style, actually worked, and was easy to understand and put in place. Enter Positive Discipline.

Positive Discipline for Preschoolers was the first PD book I read. I'd just finished reading about the 1-2-3 method and had been giving that a go for a few weeks with no real success and, frankly, a whole lot of mixed feelings about the process. So when I read the back of the PD for Preschoolers book, I was excited and yet a bit dubious....it sounded too good to be true and therefore it probably was. But I bought it anyway. That was several months ago and we haven't looked back since.

I LOVE the positive discipline method. I am living and breathing proof that it does work. The day after I finished reading the book, we completely stopped all punitive time outs and any other punitive measures we'd been (unsuccessfully) using on our almost three-year old daughter. And we began applying the PD techniques found in the book. Honestly, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of our family and we actually began to enjoy spending time with our daughter again. My daughter's behaviour literally improved overnight. And my husband and I felt we'd finally found a disciplinary method we could happily stick with for the foreseeable future.

Some folks have mentioned this book doesn't provide enough explanation about exactly what to do in various situations. I didn't have that problem but if you do, I highly recommend picking up the PD from A to Z book (which delves into specific solutions to specific discipline problems) and the original Positive Discipline book to get an even deeper understanding of what positive discipline is really all about.

For those of you who are still in doubt, a quick anecdote: My husband is Irish. We went to visit the in-laws in February of this year. We spent a lot of time with my husband's four brothers and their respective families. Almost all my daughters' cousins are within the 0-6 age bracket so we had a chance to see a variety of discipline issues and parenting styles. I had a lot of questions from the various in-laws about the discipline method we used with Maia. It apparently made a positive impression because the day after we returned home, I went online to discover three emails from two brother-in-laws and my mother-in-law asking for more info about PD, how it worked, where they could buy the books, etc.

Bottom line, PD works. It'll make you feel better and more competent in your role as a parent and it'll go a long way towards ensuring you have a positive, stable relationship with your child.

Very useful guide for preschooler Moms (&Dads). After reading this, I was able to really 'put myself in my daughter's shoes'. We had just had a parent/teacher conference, and my daughter was described as needing 'instant gratification' frequently from her teacher, as well as needing help with learning self-control and focus. The guidelines presented in this book in chart form, allowed me to look at what thoughts were prompting these actions. I now learn to engage her as my helper, so that she feels she is contributing to whatever we are doing.

Positive Discipline for Preschoolers is a wonderful guide for parents and teachers who want to lead their children on the path of good behavior without yelling. It is a book that emphasizes respect, patience, and humor. Many topics are covered, including hitting, bedtime battles, and non-cooperation. Suggestions are given as to how to handle each situation. There is a nice chart called the "Mistaken Goal Chart" which is useful in understanding why a child might be misbehaving, and the best response a parent or teacher could take to help the child behave.

Preschool teachers will find the school scenarios useful in handling common situations. I liked the one where a child was refusing to come in after recess. Instead of getting angry and having a battle over the situation, the teacher played a silly game.

As a parent, I find myself using many of the suggestions that had been offered. For example, instead of using punitive time outs, which often resulted in battles over getting my children to serve them, I tell them to cool off in Antartica. Sometimes I even take a trip to Antartica! Using humor instead of anger has really helped me become a better parent.

Positive Discipline for Preschoolers will give caregivers ideas for how to give respectful and often humorous guidance to their children. It is a book I highly recommend.

The word 'discipline' is so often misunderstood or synonymous with 'negative' and 'punitive.' This classic book, in all it's versions (and I do highly recommend reading the various versions) led to a real paradigm-shift in my life. Nelson finds a brilliant but simple way of describing a positive, loving, kind--but firm approach to helping children learn appropriate behavior.

Originally, I'd just purchased the A-Z version of the book but ended up buying each age-appropriate version and they are worth it. Although the principles are identical, the specific age examples really helped me to implement the ideas with greater success because I was more confident that what I was expecting from my child was realistic, given her developmental capacity.

Jane Nelson is a wonderful author. I have used her philosophy in my classroom and at home. It works well. However, as with anything, you can't follow it word for word - you hvae to use your best mommy judgement sometimes :)!

This book has brought about an amazing change in our parenting and the happiness of our household. Not only did it give us more tools in our "arsenal" for dealing with challenging behavior on the part our preschooler, but it has completely explained why he does that behavior. From the moment we started reading the book, our parenting was transformed for the better. My husband never likes books in this genre, but he's reading it as compulsively as I am. It's a great read, and, just like really good fiction, you don't want to put it down!!

Great book - All I want is to be a good parent - and this books helps me accomplish the goal.

I found this book extremely helpful and practical. I have seen an incredible change for the better in myself, and my son as a result, since reading this and a couple other books. Should be required reading before your child turns three! Other good ones:

-How To Really Love Your Child
-Playful Parenting

There's a lot of not very good parenting advice floating around out there so I tend to read with a highly skeptical eye. However, as a full time working mom of a soon-to-be 3 year old and soon-to-be 1 year old, I constantly found myself emotionally depleted on weeknights and frustrated on weekends because I felt overwhelmed and emotionally stretched to the max. The "working mom" books I've come across tend to focus on older children. This book changed my entire perspective on motherhood and my relationship with my beautiful two little girls. I see things from their perspective, which helps me understand why they do what they do. I have the tools necessary to deal with situations that could become difficult, and by using them, I don't lose my cool or engage in arguments with my older daughter. The examples and suggestions are very effective. I rarely "punish" anymore, and even if I do, "punish" just means a more firm tone than the firm tone I'm already using. I've stopped the punitive time outs altogether, and I've found that if my daughter can take her teddy bear and go sit on a cozy pink beanbag and just breath for a little while, she feels so much better. I try to talk to her at eye level, and I think she feels like she is being heard in a way that she's never been heard before. This book has changed my life. I look forward to seeing my girls at the end of the day and spending time with them on weekends. No more guilt, fear, or anger. Keeping my fingers crossed that my very busy husband will read it.

I'm not finished with the book yet but this book has helped me so much! I'm learning so much from this book, I'm so glad I bought the book.