How to discipline rowdy disruptive children.

First I'll tell you a little about my own situation, I'm a rainbows leader who kind of got suckered into leading a group of 13 children. 10 were lovely and listened played nicely and were just a joy to work with. 3 however were no quite so. They constantly screamed never listened and were always fighting with each other. I was ready to give up but not without a fight so in one week I introduced 3 things which worked so well and so effectively that we were all shocked by how well and how quickly they worked.

1. To quiet the children simply create an a4 piece of card with the word SHhhhhh written on. Don't say a work just hide behind the card and hold it up. This worked so well because the children read the card out loud, they were all saying "shhhh" not realising they were then telling the others to shhhh and peer pressure from all the others quickly brought the nosiest children to heel. I could not believe this worked so well, now if the children are getting a little rowdy the card makes an appearance.

2. Next work out a set out the rules, i.e. no shouting, be nice to each no fighting and print this clearly on a large piece of card for each child to see.

Beside each rule place a coloured rectangle either red or yellow. Red is for serious rules, i.e. biting, kicking, hitting etc.

Next tell the children each time they break a rule they get a yellow or red card depending on what they have done.

For us as the children were only 5 and 6 we decided 3 yellow cards would equal a red card. If they got a red card, their parent/guardian would be called and they would have to explain in front of the class and parent/guardian why they have been given a red card and the parent guardian would be asked to then remove them from the class for 5 minutes.

I have yet to issue a red card, in fact the threat of a yellow card stops the children in their tracks.

3. Lastly it’s not all about punishment and being quiet, as I mentioned earlier there are 10 girls who are great and I felt they were being overshadowed by the rowdy children, so to ensure they got the attention they deserved each of them were given a little star sticker, the pride on those little faces when they got their stars was amazing. One little girl especially who is an adorable child but gets lost because of the rowdy ones as she is shy, her little face was beaming as I called her first. Now every week I have to give out 13 stars as we have 13 lovely children who listen play nicely and are nice to each other.

Now the children have lots of fun, the adult volunteers are happy to help out now as the girls are lovely and no one has to shout to be heard nor do I go home with a headache.

Brilliant