Do you know why it’s so important to teach your child early?
Now, don’t get anxious or nervous about it!
Everything is so important, right?
But let’s talk about why it’s important.
And also, let me reassure you, that nothing we are going to talk about is anything you have to do today, for that matter yesterday.
I’ll let you in on a little secret.
All these reasons I’m going to share with you are ones that you will do over time.
Let’s get started and I’ll explain as we go 🙂
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Teach Your Child Early
So, some things I was great at starting my son on early.
Some things I realize I could/should have ‘done’ more.
All this comes from conversations I’ve had with great friends just over the last few weeks.
One friend mentioned that she can’t have her 6 year old help with decorating their Christmas tree.
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Why?
Because she knows he’d be too rambunctious and would probably ruin several ornaments.
I know, I’m sure this sounds familiar.
This is one of those times I say start early.
Since my son was 2 and a half at Christmastime, he’s been helping me decorate our Christmas tree.
The first several years I made sure I kept all the soft, non-breakable ornaments for him.
I left the bottom portion for him too.
I let him go to town and besides giving him some direction to not group all the ornaments just in one spot it was all him.
Now that he’s 5 and a half, it’s amazing.
I tried again to have him only do the soft ornaments but he wanted to do whichever ones he wanted.
I reminded him to be very careful.
And you know what?
He did awesome.
We didn’t have one broken ornaments!
I did still have to remind him to spread the ornaments around lol but otherwise he did so great.
I believe that, because we started doing this three years ago and did it every Christmas, he was ready this year.
-Teach your child early.
It wasn’t painful but it’s paid off to be patient with him.
(And not care too much what the bottom of the tree looked like ;))
In due time your child will gain the confidence and understanding of what a job requires.
Another friend of mine has gotten fairly sick.
She has a husband and three boys, ranging from about 18 years old to 7.
One night we were texting and she mentioned that she was so tired and didn’t want to cook dinner.
I suggested cereal.
She said that wouldn’t fly with her crew.
Well, after a little more texting it was clear that her husband nor her18 year old does any of the cooking in the household.
Now, I’ll be honest, this is not completely surprising but it was frustrating.
She is extremely sick yet the rest of the family can’t help out and get dinner for themselves (besides pizza).
Right then and there I made a conscious effort to make sure I start to teach my five year old how to ‘fend’ for himself.
He gets some of his own snacks but his favorite lunch is peanut butter and jelly and I’m pretty sure he can do it on his own.
We have not quite started with this yet but it is huge on my list.
We are lucky to be living with my parents and so if I were to get sick they can help take care of him.
But, I do not want him to not be able to take care of himself.
Let alone be an adult and not feel comfortable or able to cook for himself.
-Teach your child early.
The more practice they get at something the more comfortable they will be with it.
Speaking of becoming more comfortable, let’s talk about your child writing.
Because of my son attending preschool where he was introduced to writing and now being in kindergarten, he is excelling.
With that being said, he was never a big drawer, colorer, etc.
We did, and currently still do, have several workbooks that work on different skills for writing.
The reason why we still do is because, again, he didn’t care to work in the workbooks, color, draw or anything.
Because of this I never pushed, but I kinda wish I had’ve.
Had we done more of the workbooks he would be even more comfortable with writing.
With that being said, he’s doing just perfect for his age.
But I do wonder if he had’ve had more interest in it would his writing be better.
-Teach your child early.
The workbooks have lots of pages of zigzag and wavy lines.
If you think about it, that’s exactly what writing is made up of, right?
Zigzags and waves!
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Start the practice early and reap the rewards.
Here’s another example.
My son already knows how to tie his own shoes.
And he’s know for about six months.
How it started?
Well, it easily started a year or two ago with just playing with shoes ties and starting to move them around correctly.
But also with watching Floogals.
Have you ever heard of this show?
It’s a great for little ones.
It’s all about three tiny (like maybe two inches) aliens who live with a family in America.
Now, the family knows nothing about them but they learn something new in each episode by watching the family go about their daily lives.
In one episode the family’s five-year-old daughter is learning how to tie her shoes, with her own song and everything!
Talk about a great motivator 🙂
So, by the time we were really ready to start working on it this past summer he had already been introduced to it and was ready.
-Teach your child early.
The fact that he’d already been introduced to it helped the learning process.
Now, I want you to know, there are plenty of things we have/did not start early.
So don’t feel like you have to do all the things.
At the same time, remember, everything I mention was ‘worked’ on for years.
Nothing was done overnight.
Let your child hang one ornament, let them help with making cookies, teach them bits a pieces of the larger picture (thinking tying shoes or writing).
Before you know it, all those little pieces will turn into a confident and skilled little one 🙂
