Did you know that kids work the same as credit cards?
I use this fact to get kids engaged in a way that makes them feel awesome!
With a credit card you can use money now that you don’t have yet. It’s as if you have the money right now.
There’s two powerful words in there: yet and as if.
Let’s take full advantage of them shall we?
“Yet” presupposes that there will be something in the future (just not yet; like the money you’re spending in credit)
“As if” means we don’t need the reality to match the way we are behaving, we can act as if (I thank my actor training for this too- in acting it’s called the magic if)
Here’s how I apply “yet” and “as if” to draw kids into my lessons.
There’s a desired behaviour when I’m teaching; I want the kids to have fun, focus and curiosity. Not crawling up the walls excitement, and not dead eyed robots- something in between.
They’re not there ‘yet’
When I know where I want them to be and use the word ‘yet’ on myself, I’m inviting in the possibility that they will soon be perfectly at the level of engagement I seek.
Act as if.
Here’s the sneaky part, I actively praise the behaviour I don’t see yet, but I act and speak as if it’s right there in front of me: “I love the way these people over here are focussing and having fun, who else can I see? Oh yes you are all SO GOOD at focussing your attention on me and having a great sensible time!!”
I’m spending on credit here. They may not be perfect (yet!) but I’m nudging them toward perfect by praising them in advance.
The game then is to be a heat seeking missile on any and all behaviour that is remotely in the direction of the desired outcome and double down on the praise until I’m not longer in credit mode.
That attention is money in the BANK!
