Teaching them the right things, the first time

A couple of days back, I was changing the batteries in my TV remote. My daughter was standing next to me looking at everything that I was doing. The next day my daughter took control of the TV remote. As I watched she performed the exact steps I took the previous day to change the battery and to my surprise in the exact same order.

This is just one of the many examples. If you look at the past couple of days, you will find that your child has learnt a lot of things just by observing your activities.

Kids have a knack of learning by watching. They memorize everything that they watch in the exact same sequence. They might not know the reason for doing something, but they do it just because you did it.

It is hence easier for our kids to learn all the wrong things. We unknowingly keep doing a lot of things that we would not want our kids to learn, like switching electrical appliances, lighting the stove, burning match sticks etc. Learning such things could prove to be fatal and dangerous.

Teach your kids, the right things, the first time itself.

The following are a few things that you should bear in mind when dealing with kids -

• When your child is watching, do not do anything that is not right.
• Avoid doing things that are dangerous like the ones mentioned above.
• There is always a safer and better way of doing something. Follow this better way when you are doing something in front of your kid.
• If you want to teach your child something, don’t thrust it upon him. Just do it the natural way, so that your kid is watching and he will learn it.
• If you see that your kid has learnt something wrong, don’t force him to unlearn it. Instead do it the right way the next time and do it in front of him. He will learn it right.

No parent will want their child to learn anything that is not right. So teach him everything, the right way the first time.