How in the world do you begin to discipline a young child? When they get older, it's easy: no TV, no dessert, no play time with friends. But what about when all they do is run around and torment the place? Enter "1-2-3 Magic". It has a simple premise. Tell the child to stop doing something. If he doesn't stop, "that's one". Give him until three, with about five seconds in between one and two. On three, he's off to his room or isolated in a chair for a minute or two. When the timeout is complete, everything is back to normal. No lectures on why daddy did this or have you learned your lesson.

With my child, it took about four times. He now obeys before I get to "two". It was amazing.

The book is broken down into Start Behaviors and Stop Behaviors. For me, the Start Behaviors will be addressed when he's old enough to do homework, clean his room, etc. Right now it's important to have him stop doing something. The book also contains lots of information on positive feedback (don't just give your child attention when he's bad) and how to handle their attempts at manipulation.

I'm glad I found this book when I did. It's important to lay a good foundation for discipline and to hopefully prevent allowing a wild, uncontrollable kid loose on friends, neighbors, and teachers.

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