I treat my day care children as I do my own children. This means a liberal application of love, hugging, humor, silliness and discipline/guidance. I try to be firm, but fair and as consistent as possible.
Discipline must suit the child’s age, circumstances, and developmental needs. Methods of discipline may include: establishing routines, settings limits, modeling appropriate behavior, offering choices, giving explanations, repeating instructions, taking “time-out” enforcing or permitting logical or natural consequences, and reinforcing desired behavior.
Discipline must be constructive and educational in nature. Correction must be fair, reasonable, consistent, and related to the specific misbehavior. I must communicate to the child in a manner that the child understands:
What the child has done wrong
Why the discipline must occur
The full extent of the discipline (how long the discipline is in effect and/or what has to occur to end the discipline period)
What is considered to be appropriate behavior (this should be done in the form of discussion with the child)
Sometimes it’s best to keep it short, and you want them to realize what they did wrong and that it’s not acceptable.