My children take classes, lots and lots of classes; acting, fencing, ballet, circus school, art museum classes. These are all child determined and came out of them being interested in the topic and wanting to learn more. They do well and for the most part behave appropriately in these classes, my older one more so then the little one. I have always attributed this to the fact that they are truly interested in the subject but lately we’ve been having issues. My little one, who has begged to take ballet for a year now, is taking a ballet class. She started off strong, listening to the teacher and behaving well but lately she has been goofing off, disrupting the class and distracting one of her friends. We have been struggling with what to do about it. We’ve had several conversations about how she is not only not taking advantage of the wonderful opportunity that has been presented to her but she is being disruptive and preventing the other students from having a useful experience. We’ve also discussed the concept of being respectful, in all situations, to the person teaching the course. She seems to be receptive and understand what this all means and she understands how to act (she does so in other classes) but she just can’t hold it together in ballet. It also helps that she has a caring and understanding teacher who is extremely patient with her.
The class is about done and we’re considering not re enrolling her due to the problems that she is having but we know it will upset her. She loves to do ballet and again is truly interested in it but she can’t continue to be disruptive to others and disrespectful to the teacher. Have you experienced anything like this? What have you done to encourage good behavior?
This happens at a lot at the karate school I teach at and it is something we have to deal with everyday. The most effective things for me have been (though I guess many of these are more for the teacher but I think parents can get involved too)
-clear statement of rules, some children need a simple, visual reminder of the basics that we can point to or remind them of before class starts.
-encouraging (during class!) the great things the student is doing; have them demonstrate those things to the class or help lead the class in those exercises. talk to them about how they can do that because they have demonstrated dedication and are following the rules.
-its ok to have a “goofy” moment in class; we have fun games we play where its ok to chat a little in line, its ok to laugh and fall around and all that…then make sure they realize the difference between those times and the “serious” times in class.
-in the case of friends being in classes together, I separate them- esp for the “serious” stuff but I allow them to have their fun being together at other times. but if they show they can be together for the serious parts and not disrupt, then they get to be together then too.