“How the Child Thinks and the Way the Teacher Reacts” – Part 14-Love
Always bear in mind that it’s okay for the little one to make mistakes. Keeping good manners is a lifelong process. But do take the time to help them learn the skills that will allow them to become a more social, confident individual later on. Someday, they will remember you and “thank you” for a job well done!
The most important thing to consider when teaching children right from wrong is their age; at certain stages in life, principles of right and wrong are impossible to teach. Toddlers, for example, are able to understand very few concepts and the ones that they are able to understand are extremely simple. These young children understand simple responses like “no”, but if you were to try to explain why the rule is in place they are unlikely to understand. As children reach kindergarten age, they are better able to understand that there are consequences to their actions. Children at this age understand that doing right pleases their teachers and parents and doing wrong makes them upset and may lead to punishment.
As we end the 14th week on “How the Child Thinks and the Way the Teacher Reacts” with such key emotions: boasting, lying, envy, jealousy, patience, kindness, trustworthiness, honesty, anger, rudeness, self-seeking and proudness, we add the final and strongest emotion “LOVE!”
By adding “LOVE,’ it will always protect, always trust, always hope and always perseveres.
Webster’s dictionary shows love as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person or child; a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend; affectionate concern for the well-being of others: the love of one’s neighbor.
Think About It – Children perceive time, and what we do with it, differently from the way adults do. By about age 30, we adults barely notice the precious seconds. In the currency of time, they’re merely pennies, hardly able to buy anything of value. For little ones, however, every moment is weighty with possibility and so passes heavily and slowly. Seconds become minutes, of course, and minutes become hours. And imperceptibly, hours become decades. The hard truth is that we have only a relatively small sliver of time with the children we have in which to give children the gifts of our experience, patience, wisdom and heart. The time we spend with our children at this very moment — nurturing, teaching and loving them — is the substance that helps mold them into the people that they will become.
Remember the words in the beginning of this training: “When I was a child, I talked like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man (women), I put childish ways behind me. But the greatest of these is love.”
If I had my child to raise all over again,
I’d build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I’d finger-paint more, and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I’d take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I’d take more hikes and fly more kites.
I’d stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I’d do more hugging and less tugging.
~Diane Loomans, from “If I Had My Child to Raise Over Again”
The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.
Zig Ziglar
Join me next week as we began a new series of articles!