Children are naturally living with curiosity. They learn lots of things in life, are gifted naturally with intuition, and open toward everything they find.

In a healthy child, everything around them seems to be interesting to them. That’s why they want to know about many things and why they are constantly asking you questions.   It is a sign of good development to be curious.

One of our jobs as parents is to help children develop their conscience.  Spiritual development is also an important part of their growth.  Through this, they’ll learn about self-esteem and moral values.

Of course mature parents want children to have and be familiar with good values in life.  As parents, what can you do to encourage this development of conscience and spiritual part of themselves.

• Live good examples. What you say and do everyday reflect what you think about the world. If you say good stuff, your children will do the same. Children are great imitators. It is very important for you to say and do nice things anytime anywhere.  For example, if the phone rings and you don’t want to talk someone, you cannot ask them to say you are not home, when you are.  If you do things like that, you are teaching that it is okay to lie when convenient.  Share your own values.  Everyone has them.  Sometimes we are just not aware that we do until they are violated.

• Do listen when they talk. Sometimes your children ask questions that sound silly to adults, like “Mom, where does the sun sleep when the night comes?” Listen to them and answer seriously, “The sun doesn’t sleep. It shines in other places in the world.” By listening, children will feel that they get respect from their parents.   As we model  respect to them, it becomes a natural outgrowth that they also act respectful much of the time.  It is also easier to point out what disrespect looks like if needed.

• Show pleasant attitudes.  Show and share all the pleasantness, positive attitudes, joy  and thoughts with your children that you can.  If you’re doing well, they will normally reflect that.  Even if we don’t say anything, they pick up on negativity extremely easily.  Let those attitudes be the exception rather than the usual.  By doing this, the children will learn that life is normally enjoyable. 

If you are tired or having a bad day, if appropriate share with them and model  what you need to do to make yourself feel better.  Maybe even talking out loud about your options – take a nap, take a walk, read a book, take a long bath, talk on the phone to a friend, pray, listen to music, do a craft, write and draw a picture, play with a stress ball or play dough, etc.

• Introduce them to creation and nature.  Tell them that all things happen in the world are connected to each other and that there’s a reason for it.  For example, water is needed to irrigate plants and plants are food source for other living creatures.

• Be flexible with your rules. Children should be informed about what they should do. This gives them a sense of security and freedom within the boundaries you have set.  However, always take notice of their development.  There will be time when you give them options to choose and they can decide what they want to do.  By being flexible with your rules, children will tend to stay cheerful and expressi.

• Help them connect to God, the Golden Rule, The Ten Commandments and why God has set these guides to help us and others in this world.  If you have a spiritual community this can also be a very strong force in supporting the values you are teaching your children.

Again, remember that children are good imitators. Once you do or say something bad, there’s a great chance that they will do or say the same.  Using the words of “do as I say, not as I do” obviously do not work well in the real world.