How to Share 7 Important Values with Your Children

“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” 
― Franklin D. Roosevelt

What will you teach your children that will help them become more prepared to face an unknown future with confidence?

This is your opportunity to instill values, ideas and mindsets that will serve them well as they grow. While they are still young, they are taking their cues from you and the things you teach them will shape the way they see the world.

These days, you are likely spending more time with your children than before. So, there’s never been a better time to teach them about what’s important in life. 

The key to all of this is to show, don’t tell. Children will learn from what you DO, rather than what you SAY. If you are acting as a good example of your values, your children will pick that up.

So, how can you share important values with your children? Let’s look at seven of the most meaningful and profound values - and how you can teach these important lessons to your little ones.

Teamwork & Collaboration

Being able to collaborate, whether it’s academically, professionally or socially, will benefit your children again and again. Working as a team helps to move children beyond selfishness and shows them the value of listening to others.

➢   Collaborative projects

You can start by giving them projects to work on with their siblings (if they have them). This will encourage them to work together to achieve a common goal. For example, if they want to build a huge LEGO city, they have to share and collaborate.

➢   Group reading

Another fun activity is family group reading. Everyone passes the book around and takes their turn reading a page of two. Not only is this a great way for your kids to practice reading out loud, it also teaches patience and listening. You can make it even more fun by giving the book characters funny voices and acting out the story!

➢   Team sports

If you have enough people in your household, play a team sport such as soccer or a relay race outside in the backyard. Playing team sports helps children to learn about rules and fairness and working together.

➢   Board games

Playing board games is also a great way to teach your children to take turns, collaborate and play fair. There are many different board games for children of all ages, some with simple rules and others with more complex gameplay and strategy.

You can also read stories where the characters are successful because they worked together. Here’s a fantastic list of books about teamwork.

Creativity & Self Expression

Have you ever noticed that people who feel confident being creative and innovative often excel in life? Being able to use their imagination and express themselves creativity will benefit your child in so many ways.

There is a lot of pressure in the world to “fit in” and perform a certain way. If your child grows up with a strong foundation of creative thinking, they will be better able to freely express themselves and they will be much happier and confident.

Being creative allows us to try new ideas and experiment with different ways of thinking and problem solving. You might think of creativity as only being related to the fine arts, but science, technology, medicine, politics, and pretty much any field benefits when creative thinkers come up with new ways to approach problems.

The key to sharing the value of creativity with your child is simply to give them the freedom to express themselves. It means listening to what they are saying and creating space for their ideas, even if those ideas are a little silly or far-fetched.

➢   Improv games

Playing expressive improvisational games will help your kids get warmed up and thinking outside the box. Here’s a list of ideas for games you can play.

➢   Art projects

You also can foster creativity in your children by doing art projects with them that are all about the process rather than the specific finished product. They may have done arts and crafts in school where everyone in the class is supposed to paint the same flower or sunset as the teacher.

This may teach hand-eye coordination, but it doesn’t teach creativity. In fact, it may even stifle it. The child learns that there is one “correct” way to make art - and they must follow the leader to achieve it. This leads to children growing up saying they “can’t draw” because their art doesn’t look like what they think it’s supposed to look like. 

Instead, simply encourage your child to lose themselves in the process of creating. Experiment with brushstrokes, see what happens when you add more water to the paint, let them cut paper, smear paint with their fingers, or press it on with sponges. There’s no right answer or final goal, only a continual process of exploration.

➢   Imaginative play

Children are naturally creative, so the best thing you can do is simply to give them space to express themselves and avoid squashing their imagination. Give them freedom to choose their outfit in the morning, play along when they decide they are a dragon or a kitten and when they hand you a toy phone and say “it’s for you!” - always answer it. 

Kindness & Compassion

When children are born they are naturally self-focused. Learning to consider the feelings of others is a sign of emotional maturity. You can encourage and reward their kindness and compassion in many ways.

➢   Write letters & cards

For example, a great opportunity to teach this value is to write letters or draw pictures for relatives, friends and vulnerable people in your neighborhood who might be struggling. This will help your child think of others and empathize. They might even get a response back - which will encourage on-going correspondence and human connection.

➢   Help others

You can also pick up supplies for people who need them, or volunteer to help in any way you can. Here’s a great list of 9 ways you can help others during the coronavirus pandemic.

Again, it’s important to remember that children learn from watching what you do. When you demonstrate care and compassion to others, they will learn from the example. Do your best to think about how you can care for others and your child will do the same.

➢   Show them how it feels

Also, don’t forget that showing kindness and compassion to your child is also very important. When they receive kindness, that’s how they learn how good it feels. This understanding will help them want to pass along that kindness to others.

Environmentalism

Your children are the ones who will make the decisions of the future that will affect the environment. They are also the ones that will live in the world that has been shaped by the choices we make today. As the old proverb goes, “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

➢   Explore the outdoors

Take your children outside as much as possible and let them fall in love with the beauty of Nature. Show them the way sunlight filters through the leaves of the trees, the way lichen grows on the side of a rock, the way a snail moves across the garden. Teach them to pay attention to the small details of Nature, ask questions and be fascinated by the world.

➢   Teach them their impact

Teach them about how their actions impact the environment. Get them involved in sorting out the recyclables, remind them to turn off the water when they brush their teeth and turn the lights off when they leave the room.

➢   Compost together

A great project for kids is to start composting together. Children are often fascinated by the squirming worms and watching their discarded orange peels and bread crusts turn into soil can be a magical experience. You can even use the rich soil created by your compost pile to start a garden, where you can grow vegetables as a family. Your children will learn about where their food comes from - an essential lesson to impart.

Healthy Living

Healthy living habits will benefit your children profoundly as they grow. Establishing the significance of healthy living is one of the most important values you can share with your children.

➢   Family cooking

You can start by cooking together, so you can see what goes into your food and talk about the health benefits of each ingredient. Look for nutrient-packed recipes that will be delicious and fun to prepare together as a family, like these great healthy and kid-friendly options.

➢   Exercise together

You can also teach your children about the importance of regular physical exercise. There are many great kid-friendly exercise videos you could follow along with in your living room. For example, here’s a fun 25 minute kid-friendly workout video you can do with your kids.

➢   Share healthy attitudes

When it comes to healthy living, it’s very important to pass along the right mindset as well. Unhealthy attitudes towards food and exercise can stem from early childhood messages - and can be difficult to shake in adulthood.

It’s important not to attach emotions such as shame and guilt to food - or to make certain foods “bad” or “forbidden.” This only creates the urge to binge on junk food, and then a terrible feeling afterwards. Instead, focus on how good healthy food feels and tastes. Show your children the joys of delicious fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy food. When we eat these foods they make us feel good and they even give us “super powers” by boosting our immunity, improving our energy, etc.

(Of course, this is another example of a situation where your children will learn your values more effectively if you model them yourself. So, be sure you’re eating a healthy and balanced diet yourself!)

Taking Responsibility

Are your children responsible enough to take ownership over a task and make sure it gets done?

When you share this important value with your children, you’re setting them up for a life of accomplishment and achievement. Being able to take responsibility for a task and follow through (even if it’s unpleasant) is crucial for succeeding in their career and life.

➢   Chore lists

Give your children age-appropriate chores that they are capable of, depending on their ability level. You can even make chores fun by creating a colorful chore chart for the fridge. When everything is done, the family can do a fun activity together like play a board game, have a dance party or bake cookies. Show them that when we focus and get the necessary things done first (rather than procrastinating) we have more time to relax and have fun.

➢   Attitude of gratitude

One of the most challenging things about teaching children self responsibility is to reframe their mindset. Naturally, they will see chores as boring, painful and unpleasant. After all, who wants to set the table, fold laundry or clean their room when they could be outside playing? Try teaching them about having an “attitude of gratitude” when it comes to doing these things.

What does that mean? It’s a simple mindset shift from complaining about a chore, to focusing on being grateful for the reason the chore needs to be done.

For example:

This “attitude of gratitude” is powerful and can change your entire outlook towards the chores you “have” to do. If you can pass this along to your children, it will make them a lot happier in the long term.

Curiosity and Life-Long Learning

Learning isn’t just something we do in school - which stops as soon as we leave the classroom. It’s something that continues for the rest of our lives. This is especially relevant since we don’t have formal school right now - and children will need self-directed learning skills more than ever.

The key to passing along this value is to encourage your children to fall in love with learning. If they get joy and excitement out of learning new things, that will fuel the fires of curiosity for the rest of their lives.

➢   Reading together

Embark on the journey of discovery with them. Read both fiction and non-fiction books with them. Encourage them to ask questions. If they ask a question you don’t know the answer to - that’s okay! In fact, it’s a good thing for them to learn that even adults don’t have all the answers. You can look up the answer together and you can learn something new together.

➢   Scientific discovery

Try doing some kid-friendly at-home science experiments together! Here is a list of 50 fun science experiments that you can do at home with the kids.

Go outside into the backyard and poke around at things. Ask questions like, “Why do worms live in the soil?”, “Why do flowers have petals?” etc.

How will you share values with your children?

These are just a few ideas for how you can share these seven important values with your children. Your children are little sponges - they are soaking up all the lessons you are teaching them every day. The time you spend with them when they are young is precious and will shape the way they see the world as they grow up.

Now that we are staying at home with our children more than ever, this is a chance to keep them close and pass along what we’ve learned. This may be a scary and uncertain time, but when your children look back on it they will remember playing, reading, learning, cooking, creating and laughing together with you. Those are the important memories they will cherish.

How do you share your values with your children? Leave your stories in the comments - we’d love to hear them!