how to stop children from running inside

Yeah I'd try to encourage speedwalking/powerwalking if it were a particularly troublesome child but idk how effective that would really be. Personally, I think it's a useful skill and does require practice and a little discipline but it's real exercise and isn't frowned upon most places.

Maybe a sign

"try speedwalking today!"
*disclaimer: you cannot run and speedwalk so choose wisely* lol.

Or maybe a deliberate mispelling of Walk to "wok" with maybe a picture

Wok (insert picture of a pan) don't run?

That may be more of a middle school (ages 11-13) approach though alas.

Idk I spent some time thinking about it before I asked him and couldn't come up with anything but it would make me nervous that a serious accident would occur.

haha well in my experience children do not have concept of 'speedwalking'and they are not likely to respond to sarcasm and insincerity unless they are surly teenagers.

I have seen some teacher do praise those who are doing well but that means you classtime is forever interupted by a parrot saying 'I love the way xxx is sitting up' (whther it works on the problematic children is debatable)

training children to march around the field would only work if this was a military school. Nice idea though, hard to implement across the board. Some teachers are effective drill seargeants though.

soooo bottom line advice from my daughter:


but seriously, she gave a couple of pointers:


don't know if this is feasible in your school (my daughter teaches elementary school in California).

hmm ok
teachers just banned the boys that were running from the library. (3 of them chasing each other, 1 of them being older and leading the younger two astray) They apologised to me and they were somewhat humiliated in front of their peers/class, but now they are not allowed in the library. I dont know if that will send the message to the rest of the school about it and I have yet to see if made any difference but maybe it was just those boys.

however. if banned and unable to borrow books, that might potentially set their reading back all year and the rest of their school lives. However their class does not normally come in for library session times, only lunchtimes. And they still get class sets of books. But theres wider implications.

Most children who dont read or cant read or lack reading skills end up in jail. I know cos Ive seen men in jail and many of them dont know how to read. They dont have full functioning libraries in jails.

they came in their own time, they were banned cos they came in their own time and ran around.
Im the only adult there in the lunchtime when its their free time.

if the boys were not running around they could be finding books or another activity like colouring in or puzzles or chess which all the others do, but these boys were not.

The teacher asked what they were doing. One lied and said reading and one was honest and said running.
Really can you read and run at the same time? Then she asked everyone what are they meant to do in the library. all the kids chorused back READING.

so they know!

it was like adam and eve in the garden and them being told NOT to eat from the forbidden tree. But they can eat from all the others. What do they end up doing...eating from the forbidden tree, then blaming each other, hiding and lying.

punsishment...banishment from library. I dont know about cursing th e rest of their lives, after all they were made to apologise, but the teacher banned them, so they wont want to set foot in there again...is that good or bad. It means the other children get to enjoy the library safely and in peace though.

if they come before classtime I usually find books for them if I see them wandering round looking lost. I think with those boys though I havent had the time to. But I can look up their record and see if they had any books out and maybe call them in to ask them to do some jobs for me.

To make up for it, as I have done with children who've lost books. Maybe if I do that, theire example of being naughty can be redeemeed and turned around. And they could learn what the library is really for.

yeah ... I hope/pray the boys can come to enjoy the library and see the benefit of finding a good book to read. it's hard when kids are together and they egg each other on so I get that part of it. You probably wish you had the time to devote where you could sit down one on one with kids, find out what they're interested in, and get a book for them. not sure if that's even feasible though with some kids. they just don't have the patience or don't see the benefit of a good book. sad, really ...

what I will do is call them out of class and get them to do a job for me, when theres nobody else in the library. Then maybe they will come to value it. I dont normally do this but i think these boys need to learn cos if they dont they will grow up missing out on something so essential that they foolishly threw away without even really knowing.

should I do this indivdually or the 3 boys as a group? Or maybe just the eldest one who started the troublemaking.

that's a great idea! as far as individually or in a group? I'm not sure. is the oldest the ringleader of the group? maybe if you can get the ringleader on board, the other's will follow. I'll keep you and your situation in prayer ... sometimes all it takes is for the child to know there's an adult who really cares for them. maybe the boys (and there may be others over the course of your tenure as librarian) just need to know someone is interested in what they are interested in.

the teacher said she was going to meet with the parents of the boy as he was going to move classes, he was being unmanagable even for her. I asked what was going on with him and she said who knows, we'll find out. His sister is very good in the library shes always there but even she has no real idea why hes acting up.

The other teacher of the family group just said, keep those boys out of the library. They havent tried to go back in, but I did say if he wants a second chance, he can clean my library windows to make up for it.

well, the ringleader is still banned from the library, but I dont know about the other two younger boys that were copying him.
The teacher said she had chats with the parents about the older boys behaviour. He was allowed back in her class after a week. I said if anything changes let me know.

Thanks for prayers.

In a few years I will have lived 100 years, so I was allowed to watch the world change. A major change is in the behavior of children. There was no need to train children about the difference between inside behavior and outside behavior. Respect was simply part of the culture.

Back then, if someone would have suggested we make laws about taking care of children who might run into the road to be injured they would have been considered out of their minds. Of course, our model T's and a sports car of today have little in common.

Have you tried marbles on the floor?

uh no....
Cant put speedhumps on the floor but some children just automatically run when they ought to walk. I think teachers are partly to blame as they can rush their children along too much that the children feel they HAVE to be first or get somewhere quickly. Of course when you got 30 children only one can be first.

Im always saying slow down, relax, there is no rush, you are in the library.

That's too bad. Unfortunately, most kids (er, people) don't learn proper behavior until they get their nose busted. Natural consequences are a wonderful thing!

in nz the young adults that are old enough to drive always want to get somewhere first and often treat roads like a race track. Thats why theres this group called boy racers. (they never seem to grow up to be 'men racers')

This does not work in a city that has a motorway that clogs at rush hour, you can be sitting there in traffic behind all the other cars.

I have found if you want to be anywhere in time, you GET UP early and leave early rather than get up at the same time as everyone else and then feel you need to rush.

Force them all to carry scissors. Every child knows you should never run with scissors.

If this is too difficult, consider installing an indoor pool. Every child knows you should never run around a pool.

When they are running, tell them to STOP....
walk back to where the running started.........
then WALK back to where you stopped them at.

Then thank them for WALKING.