More mommy reading

About 3 months ago I placed a book order on Amazon.com for some "discipline" books that were recommended to me --

• Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood: Practical Parenting from Birth to Six Years

• Positive Discipline A-Z, Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition: From Toddlers to Teens, 1001 Solutions to Everyday Parenting Problems

• Positive Discipline for Preschoolers, Revised 2nd Edition : For Their Early Years - Raising Children Who Are Responsible, Respectful, andResourceful

Well, for one reason or another, I just started getting into them today. No, I haven't finished reading all of them, but I started skimming through them and hope to have finished reading them this month.

So far I am most intrigued by Positive Discipline A-Z. We were part of the 1-2-3 Magic fan base, but when your 2.5 year-old starts counting out your 3 month old (!!!), you start to wonder if you might need to consider other alternatives. So far, I like the emphasis the authors place on less talking and more actions (similar to 1-2-3 Magic) and I like how they suggest changing questions into the "What" and "How" form. I also like how the authors suggest using the "I noticed" approach when it comes to things that are not done. For example, instead of asking "Did you clean up your room?" when you KNOW with all certainty that the child did not clean up their room and so your question is pretty much a "trap" -- you say, "I noticed that you did not clean up your room. " Then you use an explanation (depending upon what you have for choices) and help the child through choices. If you don't care that there are dirty clothes on the floor instead of in the hamper and that your child could wear dirty clothes again, then you allow that as a choice. If this just won't work for you, then do not offer it as a choice.

Anyway, they look to be interesting reads, and I am looking forward to trying some of the "less words and more actions" approaches this week. The nagging around here (especially by DH) is really wearing to me -- and I cannot imagine how much it is causing Natalie to just tune things out after a while.

Oh, Nicholas is feeling MUCH better. The Amoxicillin appears to be helping a great deal and he only has a hint of a runny nose. And no fever today, either. Hopefully we can keep a streak running. Of course now I have a vold -- and sinus headaches to go with it -- so I'm hoping I do not give something back to Nick or Natalie.