No doubt about it—children do crazy things sometimes. It may be from high spirits, boredom, wanting attention, or a host of other causes. Often it’s not even misbehavior; it just happens to get on your nerves at the time.

Instead of having to address discipline issues when they arise, here are a few tips that may prevent them from coming up at all.

Build relationships.
A lot of misbehavior is a plea for attention. One of the best ways to head off discipline problems is to develop enjoyable relationships with club members.

Be an encourager.
Focusing on the negative hurts relationships and usually leads to worse behavior. If you encourage and acknowledge positive behavior, club members will want to behave in those ways again. Spend more time encouraging than correcting.

Treat club members with respect.
Pause before you speak. Would what you’re about to say sound disrespectful if you said it to a friend--or if a club member said it to you?

Even though you may be irritated or frustrated, look for ways to express yourself with respect for the child as a person.

Anger always comes from another feeling—hurt, embarrassment, and so on. If you’re angry, look for the feelings underneath and deal with them first. Doing so increases your chances of communicating respectfully rather than exploding.