Creating an Appetite for Excellence

Often as parents we don't think about how to instill an appetite for excellence in our children. But we can start at any time! Each day is a fresh opportunity to do better than its predecessor! 

With meals, we feed children processed foods,  fast food, and whatever salty and sugary snacks are out there. We give them sugary tea,  lemonade, soda or juices, and they develop an appetite for that type of drink. Conversely if we feed them fresh fruits and vegetables, whole wheat bread, milk and water they will learn to appreciate the actual flavor of healthy whole foods. 

On the entertainment front,  we let them watch mindless cartoons instead of educational videos. We keep them occupied with our phones or tablets. Instead of teaching them to listen to books or read them, we keep the TV on. Car rides involve movies, even short across town jaunts. When we do this, we're teaching their minds to crave mind numbing, rather than mind developing, input. Conversely,  we can instill a love of reading by reading to our children and having them listen to books on tape. This helps them develop terrific language skills. We can play educational cds in the car that have memory work, scripture songs, science facts or various composers. Capitalizing on daily opportunities to input truth and quality makes it so the occasional 'purely entertainment' times are indeed, special. 

Children's minds grow tremendously fast, and they naturally love learning. We can foster that attitude by being creative and engaging from birth, or we can let our kids get bored so that when formal instruction begins, we have already set ourselves up for trouble. Engage your child's natural curiosity. Talk with them daily, explain what you are doing and why. Show them the things in your home and tell them why you like it, point out shapes and colors. Show them tools, utensils, equipment. It's all new, they love to help, have you do show and tell, play with them, give them tasks and praise them for their help to the family. 

Teach your babies to focus by using a playpen and having engaging books, objects, or mobiles, one item at a time. Teach your toddlers to focus and sit still by reading to them with no electronic distractions. Have them take naps and sleep in their own bed and keep a book in the crib so when they awaken, they learn to enjoy flipping through. Rotate the book, make sure it is engaging with color or things to do or feel. Do not rush to get them out of the crib. Remember infants can awaken for many minutes and go back to sleep. Don't get them up in the midst of their sleep cycle thinking they are done. Sometimes they awaken and cry a little, only to fall back into deeper sleep. 

Eat together daily, sitting at the table through the whole meal. No phones, no TV, just family conversation. Show each other you value each other. 

Life is busy, but if it's too busy to look in your child's eyes each day, talking and listening, it's TOO busy. Fix that.