Teaching with Love and Logic

One book that I read as I prepared for my master's paper on classroom management was Teaching with Love and Logic. It became one of the best books I've ever read relating to both classroom teaching as well as raising kids.
I have no kids yet, as I've mentioned but excel at giving advise to those around me who have kids. At least I can point to my teaching experience and say that I have learned a thing or two over the years and most of what I preach, I have practiced.
One integral part of interacting with children is giving them choices which helps them to feel that they are in control of a situation.
You have to make up the choices that you believe fit the situation and you have to not really care which one is picked. If you are leaning in a certain direction, the child will recognize that and pick the choice you did not really want.
One example in the book is that it is bedtime and the father asks his young child, do you want to go upstairs with your feet touching the stairs or not. Basically, you are going to go to bed and I can carry you if you want, but stated in a much less demanding way.
When I used to teach fourth grade, I practiced wording things including choices in a way that would make my students feel they were in control. As we were lining up to go to lunch, I would say "We could go now, or if you'd like to sit back down and get ready more, we could always go later. You guys are in complete control if we go now or later." letting them know that I was happy whichever way they chose and had confidence in them that they would make the right decision.
Basically, "If you can't settle down you are going to sit back down until you can, whether you are late for lunch or not, I don't care. They pay me either way." (Sound like some words from a classroom of your childhood?
My better chosen words were great though because the kids would say things like "I want to go to lunch now, hey you, be quiet, we need to go to lunch, do you want to go later?" and a couple of "shut up, we want to go to lunch". Much better the kids saying it to each other than me saying it to them.
Using the wording of choice, I noticed that my kids stood up taller, they realized they were in control and they could use that newly found confidence to get the other students to buy in.
I used these methods to avoid nagging at all costs. I hate hearing nagging and I hate doing it.