I've got one DCG (4.5) that is very loud and no matter how many times I ask her to lower her voice or play quietly she always wakes the other kids up, in the am and at nap. I can not get her to be quiet.

I can normally manage it as she arrives 30-45 mins before DD and DCB (arrives early and goes straight back to sleep) are usually awake and it makes for a cranky lunch time but I manage as its only twice a week (thurs/fri). This week she's early, 1.5 hours before wake up time and nap will be late this week so I really need the 2 kids to sleep for my sanity at noon!

I put out quiet activities and reminded her that we need to use our quiet voices, but its not happening. I'm seriously considering turning on some Caillou and I hate Caillou. I've tried lowering my voice, reminding her, keeping lights dim (is gray and cloudy here), putting up noisy toys, putting out quiet activities...

What are your tactics for the loud children?

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I have a 5yo dcg who stays up while the other kids nap after lunch. The rule for her is if she can't play quietly she has to go lie down. Whenever she starts getting loud I remind her that she can use her indoor voice, or she can go lie down with the others and take a nap. So far she's always chosen to use her indoor voice.

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some kids just have a naturally loud voice

I have a 6 year old like this

Some kids have a relative that's hard of hearing or maybe at home they have the tv really loud and she has to compete or a lot of people and wants to be heard and then it becomes a habit of talking loud.

I feel for you... I know what it's like.

I just start every sentence to her..
Now softly tell me _______.

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Thanks! This may totally work!! She hates rest (she does sleep but the 1st one up and usually wakes everyone after she gets up) and in the AM I could easily throw out a mat!

Good point! I think this (bold) is totally what the deeper issue is! She has 2 older siblings at moms and mom's bf has 2 older kids that live at there too. I get her when she is on "dad's time" (never met mom) and at DCD's she's the only one. He has said he's struggling with it too, even had her hearing checked (also because she's a "what?" child, EVERY time you ask her something its "what?" "What?"...) but everything came back normal

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Sometimes when my kids are too loud...and I had (key word: HAD) a boy who never spoke in a normal voice, he was always yelling when he spoke, I would have the kids whisper. I would whisper to them. This quieted them down so much...they had to try hard to listen if I was speaking and if they spoke above a whisper, I'd remind them with a whisper that we are using our whispering voices.

I'd do that sometimes for half an hour. One day, my sa kids came in as we were doing it and they had these confused looks on their faces. I had them do it as well...it was so peaceful, and showed them that even if we whisper, we can still get the message across to who was listening to us.

The kids thought it was fun also....

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My SD and SS are LOUD. Their mother is loud and it just killls me. There's no reason for me to be able to hear them on the OTHER side of the house! UGH it's so frustrating!!!

Thanks for this post! I will try again to get through to them....

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