5 THINGS EVERY PARENT SHOULD BE DOING

Life is full of these. Teachable moments. Moments in all of our everyday lives where WE can teach our children. We can teach them right from wrong, we can teach them manners, we can teach them social skills and we can teach them to respect. We as a society can help teach our children everyday you guys! Teachable moments are moments where we can teach right then and there.

Michael and I are constantly finding ways we can teach our little dudes. I’m sure part of this has to do with the fact that I’ve got a decade of teaching experience backing my mindset. But we both feel strongly that everyday we can and will teach our children new things. Let’s break this down to simple everyday teachable moments in our day that we work to teach our two boys.

1. Right From Wrong – This one seems pretty straight forward, but it’s one that all too often can get overlooked. If you see your little doing something wrong you’ve got to correct the behavior right then and there. This is one that can start from the get go. As soon as your little starts to make wrong choices you’ve got the perfect teachable moment on your hands. One that comes to mind right away for me is pulling hair or biting! Two things both my boys did…and two things I wanted to stop right away.
2. How To – The endless opportunities to teach your child how to do something I believe is literally never ending. I can honestly say my parents still teach me how to do things today! Since we’ve got two little dudes let’s talk about some how to’s we are working on right now. For Zig, we’re working on how to eat with utensils, how to pet our dog, how to follow simple directions (go get your shoes, where do your socks go, etc.). For Zo, we are working on how to get dressed, how to zip a zipper, how to set a table and how to make simple foods for himself (you know I’m big on this one????), and of course, how to wash your hands every time you go to the bathroom!
3. Manners – MY ALL TIME FAVORITE teachable moment and yes that totally needs to be in capital letters because it’s that important. Manners are taught! Those skills don’t just come naturally, we’ve got to teach them, and we’ve got to teach them everyday! Please, thank you, you’re welcome, may I, can I, will you…simple everyday things we can work on with our kids. My favorite go to phase for this is “what do you say…” leaving it up to Zo or Zig to answer.
4. Social Skills – Can we say playdates! This is good for everyone. As your kids interact more with other people so do their social skills. I love working on social skills while shopping or dining out too. This is the perfect time to teach your kids how to talk with other adults, we all know kids can attract people. We love to use this as a way to teach our dudes how to say hi or have small talk by making eye contact and talking loud enough for others to hear.
5. Respect – Here you can teach you littles ways to respect themselves, those around them and their things (home, toys, clothing…you get where I’m going with this one). Respect is another big one and it literally comes up everyday. Can we say picking up toys! Ok, so clearly we don’t pick up every toy everyday because you guys I’m not a magic worker over here. But we do clean up and set simple games to help our dudes learn to respect their things.

One thing I love about being a parent is that I get to teach. Teaching my children how to grow into good human beings is priceless. I’d love to hear how you teach your littles everyday. Please share your favorite teachable moment with me!

much love-

danielle

xoxo