Five Fun Ways to Teach Kids the Most Important Lessons
Being a good parent is hard. It is a tremendous responsibility. If you’re like me, you want to do what’s best for your children, but sometimes it’s hard to know how to strike a balance between letting them be kids but also preparing them to be adults one day. I’m not a professional child psychologist. But I am a mom, and as I’ve parented my three kiddos, I’ve learned some ways to teach them important life lessons that are fun and easy to do. If you want to help your kids become lifelong learners, value money and their health, or be more kind through activities that will feel like play to your kids, check out the five ideas below!
Lesson: Valuing Learning
As an educator, I can tell you that instilling a love of learning in your kids is one of the best things you can do for them. One way to do this is, when you vacation, to make sure there is something you do where the kids will learn about a place, people, or the world. And then make sure you keep the learning going.
For example, this summer we visited Hot Springs National Park. While there, we were able to touch one of the pools where water flows in from the spring. After experiencing the spring, we went to lunch and looked up lists of hot springs in the United States and talked about where they are and how they are all similar and different.
Lesson: Taking Care of Health
We all want our kids to be healthy. I have found that talking openly with them about health and making healthy choices makes a big difference in helping kids care about their own health, even at a young age. The one main thing I’ve learned that works with this one is making healthy choices a “goal” and not a “rule.” This mindset difference is so crucial, especially for kids, but also for adults. We have three goals every day for everyone in our house to be healthy and they are simple:
- At least one bottle of water a day
- Mostly healthy choices in meals and snacks
- Some kind of movement every day
Lesson: Saving Money
Saving money is hard to teach kids. When they get money from allowance or as a gift, they want to spend it. The key to getting them to want to save it, for us, has been finding something they want to save for. We’re big on experiences in our house, and we travel a lot with our kids, so vacations felt like the perfect thing for our kids to save for.
We bought canisters and labels. We let each kid pick a place they want to go, and we started saving. each month when our kids get allowance, they can choose to keep it or put it in their jar. When they are given money as a gift, they can also choose. Also, when we go to restaurants, if they choose to order water instead of a drink that costs money, we add $1 to their jar. They have been so excited to see the money add up as we save for the vacations they want to go on.
Lesson: Reading to Grow
There is a lot of research that shows that reading is a really important skill for kids to develop that helps them grow both mentally and personally in lots of other ways. My best tip for getting your kids to read is to make it social. Read to your kids, especially books that are fun to read. If they are old enough, partner them up to share their favorite books with each other. And if they are old enough to be reading chapter books on their own, read what they are reading and talk about it.
Lesson: Leading with Empathy
This last one is the one I think is most important. I want my kids to be kind. I want them to care about the feelings of others and be considerate. One way we have found to help our kids build empathy is to give them opportunities to consider others and do something thoughtful. For example, when we travel, we’ll ask the kids to think of someone who might like something from the place we are visiting. We recently sent postcards to their grandparents from Hot Springs and bought a Minnie Mouse plush from Disney World for their baby cousin who will be born in December. But you don’t always have to spend money. On the way to school, I’ll ask the kids who might need a friend in their class. Or ask them at night who might need to be prayed for.
I hope this post gives you some ideas for helping your kids learn important life lessons. What are you working on with your kids? What tips do you have? Drop a comment below!
And check out some of our other posts about raising kids :
- Even Your Kids Can Be Great Travelers!
- 5 Simple Ways to Add Adventure and Excitement to Your Kids’ Lives!
- Easy Ways to Make This Summer Special for Your Kids
- Want a Positive Way to Encourage Good Behavior in your Children? Try This!
Have a good day!
Jamie
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This is wonderful! How I wish parents would put down their phones and teach their children important life lessons.