Greetings from the U.S.!

[Dennis Zheng]

Hi ASSISTants,

For better or worse, you won't be seeing me again for quite a while. If I did not get the chance to speak with you before I left South Africa, please know how grateful and appreciative I am of what you do in Alexandra. It makes me so happy to see you serving as mentors and role models for our learners, and I miss all of you dearly. Again, if there's ever anything I can do to help you, personally or otherwise, please let me know. My goal is to keep our tutors as happy as possible.

**

Also, I recently read a blog post here on working with children, and I wanted to share with y'all the highlights. Hopefully they help influence your interactions in the ASSIST!

When your kids break a rule, the consequence should kick in immediately without a bunch of preliminary back and forth and emotional hullabaloo. Don’t give them a warning and don’t negotiate with them. Just issue the consequence, be it a time-out or taking away screen time or adding a chore to their routine. Glasser argues that any consequence that temporarily takes away the kid’s options and deprives them of your attention can be effective.

Thus with kids, Glasser argues that the key to making time-outs work is that you have to make “time-in” or “game play” rich and rewarding by giving your kids positive energy and attention for the good stuff they’re doing (or the bad stuff they’re not doing).

Glasser and other researchers point out that positive feedback is more effective than negative feedback in teaching kids appropriate behavior. So as much as you can, aim to “catch” your kids doing something good. Point out and praise even the most mundane actions.

Wishing you all fantastic weekends!

Dennis