6 Subtle Ways to Teach Your Child About Life

Oluwatoyin Osaigbovo

Growing up, we learnt a whole lot about life through our basic and cultural backgrounds, stories from older people’s life experiences, folktales, fables, myths, legends, and so on. Today, the social media has replaced most of this culture that we grew up with, hence, the need for parents to dedicate time to discovering and employing variety of ways to help their children learn what they should about life.

Find a few things to note:

1. STORIES

Share your past and current experience with them. As you do, point out the morals and values to be learned from your story. Use stories from your life experience to teach them values such merits of hard work, prudence, discipline, security alertness, humility, humaneness, contentment, and several others. Also watch age-appropriate movies that foster this objectives and analyse them together.

Depending on their age, introduce biographies.

2. RUBBING MINDS

By rubbing minds with your kids, and encouraging them to express their views on a wide variety of topics, you will be opening their minds to the world around them and beyond. It’s also a good way to bond with your kids and steer them in the right direction.

3. EXPOSURE TO VARIOUS ECONOMIC CLASSES

Take them to see different classes of living standards they never thought existed. Let them see how less privileged and privileged people live.

4. GIVING & VOLUNTEERING

Let them see the value in pursuing and achieving good causes, such as reaching out to those in need and impacting lives positively whichever way they can. This starts by teaching them to be empathetic.

5. GUIDED EXPOSURE TO UNFAMILIAR REALITIES

This involves getting your ward out of their comfort zone to experience the everyday realities of the less privileged. For instance, let your child see you painstakingly draw a budget for the month and discuss the importance of doing this. Take them to the market to see you navigate in between large crowds and haggle as you shop for items. Jump buses together and let them see the flip side of being chauffeured in a cozy, air-conditioned car.

In addition, teach independence by helping them learn how to do tougher chores routinely without help.

6. MODELLING

Set good examples for your children and live by your own rules. Let the way you run your home, marriage, relationships, finance, career, and so on, inspire and teach them on their path to adulthood.