5 Values To Teach Preschool Aged Kids

February 23, 2022

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Written by

February 23, 2022

·

Written by

Teaching our young children values and skills that will prepare them for the years beyond becomes even more important as they start kindy or preschool and begin to socialise with children and adults outside their family circle.

Here are a five life skills you can foster that will help them to navigate this next chapter with a little more ease.

1. Resilience:

Resilience is the ability to ‘bounce back’ after challenges and tough times. For children, challenges and tough times include experiences like starting at a new school or kindergarten, moving house, or welcoming a sibling into the family. They can also include serious experiences like being bullied, family breakdown, family illness or death.

Children build resilience over time through experience. You can help your child learn skills and develop resilience by having a warm, supportive relationship with them. Children who are resilient can recover from setbacks and get back to living their lives more quickly. And when children overcome setbacks and problems, it builds their confidence and helps them feel more capable the next time a problem comes up.

2. Kindness

Children can seemingly have a natural propensity to engage in loops of tit for tat. Retaliation is swift with minimal impulse control. However, learning the value of kindness, even in the face of the opposite being shown to them, will help them de-escalate situations and regain harmony in relationships. This extends to the concept of encouraging them to have a generous spirit and the ability to give.

3. Honesty

Developmentally, children will go through a phase of learning to lie. This gets rocket-fuelled when they start school with the influence of their peer group. Laying the foundations of an honest outlook before this stage can really help.

Fibbing can come from a fear of being in trouble. Therefore, make an effort to ensure a child is listened to and not punished for telling the truth (in itself). For example, there can be a more significant consequence for lying compared to admitting the mistake. You can also set a clear example that you mean what you say (tell the truth) by following through on your words and statements.

4. Persistence

Whether your child is destined to fly through academics, excel at sport, or be the next great artist, there are going to be things which they find difficult to master. For some children it will be social skills, for others, it may be learning their spelling. But they need to master resilience, determination and perseverance to get through life’s tough spots.

As a parent, it can be tempting to do things for your children when they are finding things difficult. However, a great gift you can give them is to be their champion, their cheerleading squad, but not actually do it for them. Taking this approach will show them that they can succeed even if at first, they find things difficult.

5. Imagination

Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Imagination is the door to possibilities. It is where creativity, ingenuity, and thinking outside the box begin for child development. One of the easiest ways to foster and develop imagination in your children is through child lead play. Child-led play means following your child’s lead in play. It means watching your child and responding to what they say or do to keep their attention focused a little bit longer.

Following your child’s lead is good because your child learns best when they are interested in an activity. When you follow your child’s lead in play, you can take advantage of things that interest them to help them learn something new through play. Also, when your child leads, they build communication skills and learn how they can influence things around them.

Reference:

Raising Children and Shepherds Friendly

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HUMAN-KIND books help you, and your kids discuss what matters most. Written by Zanni Louise and beautifully illustrated by Missy Turner, the books share anecdotes inspired by real-life kids. The Human-Kind books include resources for parents and teachers, written by child psychologist Dr. Ameika Johnson.

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