Keeping Control: Five Tips for Working with Children

Picture this…

You have been hired to work with children and young people, either as a school teacher, coaching a sport, tutoring them in various subjects, or doing various fun activities as a summer camp counselor or an after school leader.

Being that you enjoy being around kids, you are happy about being offered the opportunity to get paid for that, imparting your knowledge to formative young minds. Or just playing with the young-uns.

I know that feeling, because for almost twenty years I was in the “kid business”, working with youngsters as an elementary physical education teacher, a coach, an after school leader and a tutor.

Over that time I learned some very important tips as far as ensuring that your experience goes smoothly without chaos or feeling that you’ve lost control. If you want to do well in this endeavor, you need to remember these five things:

1.  The most important day is day one

That’s the time where you need to establish to the kids in your class or group that ultimately speaking, you are in charge. You are the boss.

This is done by making a list of rules to follow (not too many though, I’ve always had no more than six or so), then having your charges go over them so they will understand what the boundaries are.

When I was a PE teacher, I’d have an assembly with my different classes on the first day of school, telling them that the PE activities and games would not start until the rules were gone over and understood.

Things usually went smoothly after that, as opposed to earlier in my career when I didn’t go over rules and ended up having to stave off chaos. The reason? Because by knowing the rules and what’s acceptable in class, the kids would know what is expected of them.

Plus it sets the whole tone for the school year or the season

That is a key to having a good experience with kids, and having a good class or group. If they don’t know what the standards are, they tend to think they can do whatever. And that’s bad.

2.  Establish a routine and stick with it

This is not only self-explanatory, it is also essential.

Children thrive on routine, particularly younger ones.

Classes, sports teams, and after school and summer camp groups run more smoothly when there is a routine because the kids know what to expect, rather than running around and going buck-wild due to the fact that they don’t know what they’re supposed to do.