When my son (now 3.5 years old) was not quite two, I found myself frequently using "time-outs" as a disciplinary tool.  There were days when I think he spent more time in time-out than he did out, and sometimes I wondered if this controversal form of discipline even worked.  Was he learning anything?  I often asked myself.  

One afternoon, when I was in the kitchen making lunch, I heard my toddler in the other room, talking to somebody in a rather stern voice.  I thought it was a little odd, since he and I were the only ones home, and he wasn't really into imaginary play, at that point.  I wiped my hands and sneaked into the room to find my son lecturing his Bob the Builder doll and placing him on the floor, propped up against the baby gate.  I couldn't understand everything he was saying, but I caught just enough to understand what was going on.  Poor Bob had refused to share and because of his choices, there were consequences.  Bob had been put in a time-out.

The picture of this little toddler putting his doll in time-out still makes me chuckle.  My poor boy had been in Bob's shoes countless times before, and he'd sat through an number of those lectures himself; nobody had to tell him how to do it, even when I thought he wasn't listening, my son had been watching closely and soaking it all in.

(Picture courtesy of google images)