5 Tips for Teaching Kids Good Values
Good values are not necessarily a natural occurring phenomenon in society, especially when it comes to children. Get your little learners started on the right path by employing some of our recommended tips for teaching kids good values. If regularly employed, these simple and easy habits can have a truly lasting affect on your kids and how they determine right from wrong. Honesty, justice, determination, and consideration are just a few of the plethora of important values you might want to instill in your kids early on in their development.
Besides prioritizing family and time spent together, here are 5 tips for teaching kids good values:
Create awareness
For kids to understand how abstract things like values can affect their day to day lives it is important to make the self aware at an early stage in their lives. They need to see how their overall demeanor and actions can ultimately ripple out and affect the immediate world around them. Approach this concept in its simplest form by breaking down the relationship of cause and affect.
Lead by example
Young children will often look to their parents for direction when it comes to making decisions or picking up new habits. While part of this is rooted in a child’s sentimental admiration for their parent, the other part root is in basic observation. When positioned around specific habits or actions, kids will easily mimic parents or other immediate role models.
Open a dialogue
Make sure that your kids feel comfortable talking to you about how they feel about situations they encounter at school or in other social settings. When they are forced to make tough or important decisions in those early years and later in life, you’ll want them to see you as an ally with only their best intentions in mind. Having an open dialogue ultimately helps assure that they have at least through a decision or plan of action.
Positive reinforcement
When you see your kids exhibiting good values and showing respect toward their friends and family, take notice and be sure to respond with a little positive reinforcement. Whether it’s a verbal pat on the back or a special treat to reward their actions, having them know that you approve of something they’ve done can have lasting effects on their way of thinking.
Be accountable
When you act out of line or display qualities that are not necessarily the most honorable while in front of your family, use your actions as a teaching tool for your little learners. By being accountable for how you act in public, they will be able to learn more about right from wrong. Identify your misstep and explain to your kids how you plan on working to improve the way you acted or reacted in this certain situation.
