Teaching kids is challenging work, and most of the time, parents are long overdue for a good trip to destress and declutter the mind. They might even need relaxing activities like a spa visit or amicroneedling treatment. There’s no worse combination than a busy household and an overloaded mother and father. Plus, with all the extra pressure and fears from an alarming rise of omicron cases, parents today have it quite difficult with so many things to juggle from career sustainability, family life, and health.
However, before you let your emotions dictate your actions and resort to constant lecturing to get your point across, we strongly advise against doing so because those types of lessons don’t stick around long enough to become a core memory, especially when teaching values. And suppose you want to contribute to your child’s holistic development of character. In that case, we recommend dropping the concept of lectures altogether because numerous alternatives are much more effective.
Lectures Are Often Perceived as Boring
You see, while lectures can work in an academic setting where students practice their visual and auditory skills, please consider the fact that your kids are nowhere near ready for that level of responsibility because they’re still toddlers at best. As a result, when you try to lecture them on values, faith, and consequences, your words go inside one ear and out the other, coming off as distinctly dull compared to their games, toys, and mobile phones.
- Kids Don’t Respond Well to Nagging: Firstly, long, passionate lectures on values tend to surface when you notice a mistake and want your child to reflect. But what your child understands from their perspective is that you’re nagging away, and so much is lost in the noise of misunderstanding. In fact, you might even encounter a lot more opposition and resistance trying to share lessons that way, which is the last thing you want when kids are already going through so much due to pandemic-induced stress.
- Words Fail Compared to Actions: Secondly, while words are more than capable of teaching and sharing important messages, from the point of view of a child, words tend to fail when compared to actions. Of course, that’s not to say kids never learn from pointing out specific things, but getting them to move their entire body and practice a little bit of autonomy in their decisions encourages deeper learning. And when introducing essential values, active participation takes the cake.
#1 Explore Creativity Through Storytelling
An excellent way of connecting with your child and incorporating a bit of faith into your lessons is by exploring more creative teaching methods like storytelling. It operates just like a lecture, but instead of pouring out buckets of information, the lessons are ingrained into the story flow, highlighted at a climax, and resolved with a proper conclusion. In doing so, your kids can associate themselves with characters and actively take part through what-if scenarios if they were in the same situation. Plus, if you don’t mind putting in extra effort, acting things out in a drama play is very effective.
#2 Include Values in Their Daily Routine
Practice makes perfect, and nothing helps lessons stick around for much longer than repetition, so including values and lessons into their daily routine is equally important. For example, giving them some simple household chores they can help with is perfect for learning accountability and cooperation, two values that are important no matter where you go. You can also take things a step further by letting them decide how they want to help around the house, reinforcing respect and empathy for the family.
#3 Get Involved in Community Projects
Faith and values teach the heart to care not only for your immediate family, friends, and loved ones but also to include members of your community, reaching out your hand to those who need it most. And if you want your child not only to learn values but act on them, getting involved in community projects is an excellent place for active participation. Understanding the social benefits of engaging in volunteering at a young age reinforces belongingness and love for all, something they’ll carry with them forever.
#4 Teach By Example and Responsibility
Last but not least, you can’t expect your child to reciprocate the values you’re teaching if you don’t hold yourself to the same standard. At the end of the day, teaching by example and showing your responsible side is how you get them to look up to you, and it’s one surefire way of making sure those values aren’t just taken at face value. Plus, it’s a lot easier to address a child’s opposition when you can show them what’s right and wrong through example because, in this case, your actions will speak louder than words.
A Foundation of Strong Values
Overall, there’s no denying that kids need a foundation of strong values, but lectures aren’t the most effective way of going about it. Instead, try some of the active alternatives mentioned above to receive a more fruitful and engaging response from your child about good moral character and faith.
