Teach Your Children Something New

You can find serenity in teaching your kids some new tricks. At the beginning of each school year, parents think of all the things their children will learn in school over the course of upcoming year.  Undoubtedly parents are thinking about math, science, language arts, music and reading. However, there are many more lessons that parents must teach their children. Many things parents teach their children are things that the parents have learned on their own over the course of their lives and found important enough to pass to the next generation. Think about all the things you teach your children. Many of the things we teach our children are things our own parents taught us. Other things we teach our children are things we have learned at school. Still other things we learned by reading books.

At the start of this school year, think about the things you have taught your children and the things you still have to teach them. If you do not feel comfortable teaching life lessons to your children, try using a book to make the job easier. There is a book for every lesson you need to teach your children.  Check out the following examples:

1.     How to Succeed in School – while it is up to teachers to do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to teaching children school work, there are times when parents need to help their kids. Most parents have spent at least a few days sitting at the kitchen table trying to figure out how to make a board game, drawing nimbus clouds or figuring out quadratic equations. My daughter is going to be spending the first quarter studying Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Ken Ludwig’s  How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare may come in handy as I try to help her this semester.

2.     How to be a Good Employee – children need to learn how to behave on the job. It is a good idea to teach them good work habits and the rules and regulations they will have to respect in the workplace. As adults we have experience and knowledge that enables us to behave one way at home, another at school and yet another at work. Joy Berry’s Every Kid’s  Guide to Laws that Relate to School and Work is a good place to start teaching your children about law and work.

3.     How to Play Games – there is more to life for a child than school and work. Children also need to have fun and play games. My three youngest children love to play chess and all three, even the six-year-old twins, can beat me at chess. As a result, I am on a mission to kick my chess game up several notches. Murray Chandler’s Chess for Children  gives the rules of the game and strategy in a format that is easy for children to understand.

4.     How to Tell Jokes – the ability to tell jokes and to laugh at the jokes told by others is an important skill that every child needs to develop. Jokes are a good ice breaker that goes across racial, social and economic lines.  Laugh Out Loud Jokes for Kids by Rob Elliott has some great jokes you can teach your kids.

A look at the books discussed above.

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