Last month I wrote about the importance of developing the spirit of giving within the child. This month is the second part of that article. “Being in the moment” with children means paying attention to what is going on with the children in your life. Not just being aware of what they are doing but interacting with them through conversations and doing things with them. We need to convey that we are interested in what they have to say, and that their feelings matter to us.
Our interactions should be caring, filled with enthusiasm, great eye contact, where we talk with children rather than at them. We must be intentional to plan moments that are exciting, engaging and interactive. There should be plenty of open-ended questions which requires the children to think in order to respond. Open-ended questions require more than a one-word answer. These types of questions build the child’s intellectual thought processes as well as their vocabulary and sentence structure. When children have good communications skills, they gain confidence, maturity and they get along with others. I believe that when children are confident, they are usually happy!
We need to create sharing times, when each child gets the opportunity to share something about themselves, what they did on the weekend, the evening before, their favorite moment of the day or their favorite things, etc. In other words, truly get to know the child.
In our fast-paced world, we are losing real “face time” with children, we have exchanged it for screen time! When we have conversations with children then we are creating relationships with them, getting to know their mind and their hearts!
Aristotle said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
Beginning as young as 2 ½ we can begin exposing them and teaching them about their feelings and giving them the words to express their emotions to their peers and adults in their world. It is easily done through children’s literature. When they learn the emotion words, they can then share what they feel in their hearts!
When you read a book, discuss with them the emotions of the characters in the book. A favorite book about feelings is Dr. Seuss’s, My Many Colored Days. There are hundreds of great books to read to children about emotions.
As a new year approaches, I hope that I have encouraged you to put down your devices and be intentional about having positive conversations with the children in your life. Live in the moment with the children in your life! By doing so, I believe you will see less behavior problems, and aide children in becoming caring and compassionate individuals.