Teaching values can begin with little ones on the couch at home. The following by Mark Brandenburg MA, CPCC, is a wonderful perspective on how to teach values to your kids.In a consumer-driven society that broadcasts values you don't approve of, how can you teach values to your kids? Here are ten ideas to help you:

1. Tell them life stories and teach through stories. Kids love to hear stories about their parents childhood. Weave in some moral dilemmas, and it will present great opportunities to teach them values. Life stories are especially effective at bedtime, when there are fewer distractions. They fall asleep with the story swirling around inside them.

2. Live your life according to your values – walk the talk Kids learn by imitating, especially at a young age. They're very adept at seeing the match between words and actions. Don't give them confusing signals; follow your own values every moment.

3. Expose them to your religion, faith, or spirituality. It seems especially important to let kids know they're not alone. Guiding kids towards your faith or spiritual beliefs will strengthen values, and provide parents with a framework for their life.

4. Pay attention to who else might be teaching values to your kids. Get to know the child's teachers, coaches, friends, etc. Anyone who spends time with kids will influence them. Know their values and beliefs as well.

5. Ask kids questions that will stimulate dialogue about values. Telling kids what values they should have won't be very effective, especially when they get older. Asking them curious questions will allow discussions that will eventually lead to values. "What did you think about that fight?" will be more effective than, "He shouldn't have started that fight!"

6. Talk to them about values in a relaxed and easy way. Nothing will turn kids off more than preaching values to them after they've screwed up! Talk when everyone's relaxed, and do it in a light, conversational manner. Be aware of using criticism or tone of authority, which has kids wanting to run for the door.

7. Limit exposure to TV and video games. One of the ways to teach values to kids is by showing them what we avoid. Advertisers in the US will be spending over a billion dollars to try and convince children that they'll feel better if they have the right clothes, etc. Show them there are more valuable ways to spend your time, limit your own TV watching as well.

8. Involve your kids in helping others. Kids learn values when they experience them. Allow them to experience helping others by donating a portion of their money to the needy, or by getting involved in charity work. When kids see first-hand the results of their efforts, an important value will be established for a lifetime.

9. Have frequent conversations about values in your household. Don't make the mistake of only talking about values when something goes wrong. Kids need to hear our hear values reflected often in conversations. It's another way for them to know that it's important.

10. Have high expectations for kid's value systems. Children will will tend to rise to the level of our expectations. Their value system will often reflect ours, as long as we expect them to make it an important part of their life. When kids are making a decision, ask them to consider how their decision fits into their own value system. Mark Brandenburg MA, CPCC, coaches busy parents by phone to balance their life and improve their family relationships. more information, please visit MarkBrandenburg.com or email him :mark@markbrandenburg.com.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Community Board. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.