As a parent, you are faced with what lessons you need to teach your children. There are hundreds of lessons that your child will learn and its up to you to deliver these lessons throughout their lives, into maturity. But what are the top 5 most important lessons that very child should be taught first? This question may have a variety of answers, but after many studies, it is believed to be lessons regarding nutrition, money, education, sharing, and responsibility.
1 - Teach Nutrition Benefits Early - From your child’s first sips of milk, they rely on you to fuel their body with energy. It is very important that once their able to make choices on their own, that you have taught them how to make smart choices from their early years that they can take with them throughout their life. Currently, by the time kids reach 12th grade, only 23% feel that they take care of their bodies by eating well and exercising regularly. This can lead to a lifetime of health problems like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
2 - The Value of a Dollar - Many kids have absolutely no concept of what one dollar actually means. If they are not taught this early on, their spending habits may spiral way out of control as they get older. It is important to give your children lessons on managing a bank account, what credit is, and most importantly how to save money. This will infuse valuable values in them that they will benefit from throughout their whole lives.
3 - School Rocks - By teaching your child the importance of education, you are not only ensuring they learn the basics in their classes, but you are also giving them the opportunity to love to learn. Learning, if encouraged, will continue far after graduation occurs if they are ignited with the passion to find answers. In life, people never stop learning so its important to raise your children to have a thirst for knowledge that they can take with them throughout their lives.
4 - Sharing - Sharing is one of the oldest traits parents try to teach their kids. Sharing goes far beyond the legos that a brother and sister may be fighting over. By learning early on to share, your child will have be much easier to get along with and be endowed with wonderful social skills. Kids with siblings tend to catch on to this concept a bit easier, but it can certainly be taught to single-child families as well.
5 - Chores and Responsibilities - By giving your child chores and responsibilities, you are giving them a bit of independence. If they are responsible for keeping their room clean, its going to be an issue for them if it is not. Kids also feel good when given responsibility because for the first time in their lives, they are able to consciously make their parents proud. This will give them a sense of responsibility as their responsibilities accumulate throughout their lives.
By enforcing these values into your children, you will raise good-hearted, motivated members of society.
Excellent, excellent advice! If all parents incorporated those 5 values when raising their children the world would be radically different wouldn't it??
ReplyDeleteI like this article so much. I wish all parents would parent like this.
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