The threat of no story time

15.05.10

The naughty corner stopped working in my house a long time ago simply because when one child is banished to the naughty corner the other one follows. Soon after I hear giggles and general play which defeats the whole point of being sent into solitary confinement to begin with!

All is not lost though on the disciplinary front because there is one thing that works all the time – the threat of no bedtime story!

Given my children’s love for reading (okay fine, at 5 and 2 years old they are being read to, but picture reading counts) this is a threat that quickly corrects the naughtiness. My eldest has tested me on occasion by pushing her luck and has had to deal with the consequence when to her shock, I see the threat through at bedtime. So teary is the protest that I don’t resort to this punishment often – besides her love for books is something I want to encourage as much as possible. And although they are still young, this is when the habit and enjoyment for reading starts. As the African proverb goes “if you learn while young, you can do it when old.”

At bedtime they each get to pick a storybook – of late my daughter will select either Pale ya Tlou, Josephine Wants to Dance, or a book brought home from her school’s library; while my son is into Lion King, which I either read in English or translate into Sesotho as I read along.

As story time is something they enjoy and with each book that gets added to their ever growing library they know to appreciate them cause the threat of not being read to could be around the corner!