The secret of American children’s self-discipline from childhood is hidden in a piece of A4 paper

I used to have a colleague in the company, a single American girl who grew up in a small western town and had never left the United States. One day she had a sudden idea that she wanted to learn Spanish and go to South America to teach. Every day during lunch time, I could see her covering her desk with colorful post-it notes to remember words, and then punching cards in her notebook. The way of clocking in was to put a smiley face sticker on her notebook every time she completed a study task. Because of this \”childish\” behavior, I often joked with her and asked her if she could summon the dragon by collecting all the stickers. She said seriously that this was her source of motivation. Every time she studied for 21 consecutive days, she would buy herself shoes or cosmetics. Half a year passed like this, and on the same day I submitted my resignation after giving birth to my baby, she also resigned and went to South America alone. I received an email from her a few days ago, saying that she is now teaching English in a small town in South America. She has no barriers to Spanish and can mingle with local children. The point is, she also met a handsome local guy with eight-pack abs, who was cooking for her. I replied to the email and praised her: It turned out that I had carefully collected the stickers and summoned the dragon. Self-discipline is a very powerful ability, and those who are lucky enough to have it since childhood can always realize their dreams more easily. But self-discipline is not something you are born with, and some techniques can make it easier. This reminds me of an American kindergarten I visited some time ago. This kindergarten attaches great importance to children\’s hands-on ability. Each child has his or her own \”task\”. For example, one child is responsible for helping the teacher distribute placemats during snack time, and two children are responsible for watering the green plants in the classroom. How do young children remember to perform these tasks every day? It turns out that the secret lies in such a task list: children who have completed the task can receive a sticker from the teacher and put it under their task. It’s clear at a glance, and you don’t even need to be literate, so the difficulty of getting started is zero. After chatting with the principal of the kindergarten, I learned that this kind of task sheet is a very scientific self-management enlightenment tool. Not only children can use it, but adults can also use it to achieve their goals. It has a wide range of uses, such as encouraging children to toilet train, participate in housework, read independently, develop good work and rest habits, etc. The task list mainly helps children learn better self-management from the following two aspects: 1. Make every task \”visible\”. After Su Bao turned two years old, I began to try to let her participate in managing her own schedule, but It is difficult for a two-year-old child to remember to drink milk before going to bed every day, then brush his teeth, and finally read a picture book. The solution was also learned from her American early education teacher. Use a small picture to mark each task clearly in order. After completing a task, close a small window, similar to this: As mentioned earlier, you can learn to speak fluently in fragmented time. She is a fluent girl with perfect coordination skills and her favorite saying is Seeing is Doing. She often uses a notebook to plan her work in detail and clearly write down the tasks. This is also a little secret of self-management from 1 to 100 years old: visualize the tasks. , write it out, draw it, whether it is a long-term goal or a small thing that needs to be completed today, it will be clear at a glance what needs to be done, and it will be more convenient to manage. 2. Remember to give children the motivation to manage themselvesWhen you were in kindergarten, did you get the happiness brought by the little red flowers? \”Reward\” is a very strange thing. It not only has miraculous effects on children, but also helps adults achieve self-improvement. The task sheet is very versatile and can be DIYed at home. Recently I am trying to toilet train Su Bao. No matter how much I encourage her verbally, she is not interested in the toilet. That day she was scribbling on a large piece of white paper, and I suggested that we make a potty chart for learning how to use the toilet together, so we came up with this: if you use the toilet yourself, you will get a star sticker. Ever since Su Bao got his first sticker, he suddenly became interested in potty training and often asked to sit on the potty. I have to admit that the clear task list and these little star stickers are more for a two-year-old than an adult. My earnest attempts to persuade her to go to the toilet still worked. Want to create a to-do list at home, how do you get started? The more common uses of task tables include participating in housework: establishing work and rest patterns: developing good living habits: When drawing task tables, you can consider these two types: 1. Use pictures to represent tasks with the task axis as the center, and each time a task is completed Get a sticker. This kind of task sheet is truly zero-difficulty, does not require literacy, and the starting age can be around 2 years old. Remember that tasks should not be too difficult, as children can easily lose interest if the rewards are too costly. When designing a task schedule, remember to split the tasks into three. For example, brushing your teeth, washing your face, and going to the toilet before going to bed should be three tasks respectively, rather than being generally called \”preparation before going to bed.\” 2. This kind of timeline-centered task table is suitable for older children (after 3 years old, or after they have a certain concept of dates and weeks), and encourages children to stick to good habits for a period of time. For example, if you use stickers to express the housework you participate in every day, if you do the housework for 7 consecutive days, you can get some kind of substantial reward: for another example, if you brush your teeth, you can get a colorful stick, and if you collect 7 sticks, you can get a new one. Toy. Of course, children\’s patience is limited, and the process of obtaining rewards cannot be too long. Don’t put too much emphasis on prizes to avoid completing tasks just for rewards. Instead, praise your child’s efforts when he or she completes tasks continuously. Children\’s nature is to \”disperse\”, and adults need to gradually teach them to acquire the ability to \”gather\”. This ability of aggregation can help children achieve self-discipline in a more scientific way in their future lives. Today I introduce this simple task sheet, which may help you and your baby have more fun in the process of learning to \”aggregate\”.