I’m really excited to make this post! It’ll be a short one, don’t worry.

During my break time, I’ve been reading lots and lots of comics (or bingeing YouTube video essays, which are both educational and a good model for speaking at length). So one day, as I’m scrolling through, I come across this very short and endearing Q&A comic on childcare from a daycare teacher. Since I originally wanted to shadow a lower school teacher for a week, I wanted to see what I could glean from it.

According to the comic, when trying to make a young kid listen to you, use your indoor voice and calmly and clearly tell them what you want, making sure to look them in the eye (or at least be deliberately focused on them). It’s hard for them to listen to just words.

To cheer them up, don’t be chipper at them. Figure out the cause of the problem, acknowledge that it’s valid for them to be upset, and move on from there. Similarly, to chastise them, listen to why they did what they did, which will encourage them to hear you out, too. The example used was, when a kid climbs on a table, ask them why they did that (“I wanna be up high”), acknowledge it (“Yeah, that does sound fun, but…”), and then explain why they can’t do that.

The comic is only 17 pages with big panels, so it was a quick and fun read. I encourage you to read it here (it’s also part of a really cute series). That’s all from me. Thanks for reading!