Have you ever wondered how is it even possible to criticise someone (whether child or adult), make them feel bad first, in order to help them change behaviour? Isn’t that crazy and quite impractical?
Interestingly, the most common method used to discipline children is by pointing out their mistakes, criticising and punishing them for unwanted behaviour.
Human psychology says that these tactics usually cultivate fear in minds. These can make children do something because of fear, but doesn’t make them any lasting change their behaviour and mindset.
There can be far better approaches to help children learn good habits and qualities. As children love to have fun, the most effective way to help them learn is by being creative and interesting.
How about this creative approach –
Change their environment in creative ways!
Let’s take examples of common good habits…we want our children to learn healthy eating, taking care of themselves, going to bed at time, keeping their environment clean and maintain good hygiene.
Helping kids to go to bed in time:
Many parents struggle with this one. Rather than keep on telling them or screaming at them to go to bed, we can try these instead –
Create an environment of sleeping: make sure to put off TV well before time. Feed them in time. Put the lights to dim, you can even put some light soothing music or lullabies on (especially for little ones). And soft music for big ones.
Sit in their bed with a bedtime story and read and gently put them to bed. Make sure you do this at same time everyday, stay consistent and see what happens.
Brush and bath time:
Rather than forcing your child for brushing their teeth or take a bath, sing a funny song – that could be about a worm waiting to eat food hidden in their teeth or germs hiding in their skin.
If your child doesn’t focus on doing anything like eating or dressing up; don’t use distraction tactics with her / him. Rather keep all distractions away, like TV or cartoons. That will help the child to start focussing on the activity at hand.
Add on lots of positive encouragement.
Helping children learn to wash hands before eating:
Savlon has done an amazingly creative job in a CSR project “Healthy Hands Creative Sticks”. They have created specially designed chalks infused with cleansers, to ensure that children’s hands are washed and cleaned before eating food in school.
Check this out :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVWUlWEfJ1k
For sure, children will have lot of fun using these chalks and washing their hands too with afterwards. What a creative way to ensure hygiene and good health!
To improve focus & concentration in class:
To ensure children are focussing on lesson in the class, teachers can keep a notice board or wall assigned for “My learnings”.
Children can be asked to write the points they enjoyed learning in the class on post it notes and stick their notes on the board after the period is finished.
Are there any creative ways, you use for your children to cultivate good habits? Please share with us in comments, we would love to know and will post with your name.