Giving Children Choices Part Three

When I was raising my two boys, I was learning about giving choices.  One winter's day, we took a walk in Washington Crossing State Park.  It was here I decided to practice my new skill.

"OK, guys, we can take this trail or that trail. What's your choice?"

"Do you want to rest now, or shall we keep going?" 

"I have a snack; do you want an orange or an apple?"  

Sometimes they would ask me to do something.

"Can we go explore that area?"  

"Can we sit on the stone wall?"

In the last blog post, I talked about how giving children choices gives them some sense of power and control in their lives. Remember, children all day long are being told what to do. By providing children small choices in their lives, they feel that they have some say or some ability to make decisions independently. 

In this part, we continue to discuss two different “choices” methods, the “forced choice” and the “alternative choice.”