How To Teach Children Early
There is a lot of research to suggest that a child taught a path in their youth will not deviate from it later in life. Some may call this brainwashing but this usually associated with bad ideas or ideologies that are not acceptable in society, like terrorism.
Some people even argue that teaching children a religious curriculum is unacceptable. I am of the opinion that if you want your children to be a betterment in society, they have to have good moral standards. This does not have to come from a Christ centered religion but the framework is there.
Leading up to the conversation topic, how are children taught early. Sure they can be taken to church or showed terrorist propaganda to train them to think certain things. How are they going to act in society?
Four Ways To Teach Children
Tip #1 - Make it personal
Communicate with you children on their level. Convince them that what is being communicated will benefit them. Explain how the benefit will work and how they could enjoy the reward.
This should not be confused with bribery. That is a way to train behavior but not the point of this topic. This idea here is to allow children to see the benefit of their actions.
Tip #2 - Be a teacher
As a parent, children are going to learn from you. They are going to learn your habits, your speech inflections, your off the cuff responses. They are even going to repeat them back to you.
As children continue to learn, they are going to surprise you with what they pick up.
Teach children by example, discussion, on paper, even media sources such as books, magazines, appropriate internet searches, peer to peer engagement, parent to child engagement, among others.
A parent does not have to have all of the answers to a child's questions but questions should not be left unexplained. Here are additional resources on how to teach children.
Tip #3 - Let them discover the answer
Parents have been around a while, they have a head full of knowledge and could easily explain a lot of things that are beyond a child. It is important to remember to allow children to discover the answers. This process usually takes a few more minutes to allow them to process the information and come up with solutions.
Their solution may be surprisingly easy or such a simple concept that it will be profound. It could go the other way as well and the process of discovery could lead to an explanation about why pirates need to be fought...yes, it happened.
In any case, let children use their mental capacity to explore new concepts and ideas and engage in the conversation with natural ideas. This will also allow them to speak and contribute to the conversation instead of being talked over or talked for.
Tip #4 - Correcting Mistakes
Children are going to make mistakes. They are going to say inappropriate things and act like a kid a lot of the time. As a parent, take the opportunity to correct inappropriate or "bad" behavior. I am not suggesting spanking or hitting or being verbally aggressive.
The concept of correction can be done in many different ways. One way that has been effective is to isolate the child and correct in private with calm tones, explaining the situation and why it was inappropriate.
Keep in mind to allow children to rationalize why they felt their action was a correct one. Let them come up with ideas on why it was inappropriate. A child will most likely need prodding if they are extremely young.
An effective way to isolate is to go on a Talk Walk. That is what we call it. Here is an example:
I heard my son say to his mother that he wanted to take a picture of me when I was in the restroom, so, when I was finished, I asked him to go for a walk with me. I explained that we do not take pictures of people naked or make videos of them. Our bodies are private and we need to keep them private. We wrote more information in more depth in a different post.
I further explained that if we see pictures of people naked, we tell a trusted adult, in his case his parents, and that he would not have done any wrong or be in trouble.
I asked him why he thought pictures of naked people were not a good thing to have. His limited understanding was that we only get naked in our bedrooms. I did not explain sex trafficking or the damages of pornography because he is still very young but it will be a topic for a later day.
Reassure your kids that being honest and talking about their feelings is not bad.