Shadowing

[coolconfidentme]

What are your rules for shadowing? Do you allow a child to play? Toy? How long does your shadowing last? What puts a child in shadow at your DC? What works best? Please & thank you!!

[JoseyJo]

I shadow with new children for the first week or so, with new toddlers (we take 18 mo and up) and with children doing inappropriate things such as hitting, taking toys, dumping toy bins, chewing/mouthing toys, tearing things up.

I do 2 types of shadowing:

The first is I shadow them- they do whatever they want and I keep them in sight at all times. I do this with new children, littles who are still learning (like not to mouth toys, dumping bins, taking toys, etc. This works really well for catching behaviors as/before they happen to correct them and speeds up the learning process.

If that doesn't work, it is purposeful, or I find out that they are "sneaking" the inappropriate activity (biting the second I turn my head, etc) then they shadow me. This means they are by my side and move when I move all day. Since this is the second step it is usually an all day thing, starts over with another chance the next morning. They can have 1 toy, coloring or book if it doesnt cause problems. If it goes on more than a few days then I consider terming as I don't have time for that with a full preschool curriculum!