The Home; The Center of Learning

It's true the home is the center of learning.  Want your kids behave, to have a morals, to love to read, start early with them or you might just be S.O.L.  How you raise your kids can dictate how they learn.  What habits you have can impact your child.  Your likes, dislikes, and fears can impact your child.  Let's not forget how you discipline them.  You can also pass off your attitudes to them.

So much of what goes in the home is picked on by our kids.  Kids, especially little kids know when something isn't right.  They can pick up on mom or dad's emotions.  They can learn words and language by simply listening to what's being said around them.  If you want your kids to read, then you need to read to them while they are young, and if you do read to them then, there is a good chance that they'll continue to read.  Children are sponges capable of picking up on a lot.  You just have to work with them.  By establishing a love of learning, you are really helping them out in the long run.  Keep in mind though, they have free will and may decide that they don't care for learning.

Your habits can impact your kids.  Again kids have free will so nothing is totally set in stone but we know that some bad habits are easier to pick up on if your parent's have them.  If you smoke around your kids, you be setting the stage for them to smoke.  I know a family where both the husband and the wife smokes and it seems as if the kids are always sick with colds.  If you drink in front of your kids you could be setting the example. Luckily kids do have a mind of their own and can change the possible future.

Kids are also good for picking up on mom's or dad's likes, dislikes, or fears.  They will pick up your food choices.  What fears you have and the way you react to them can determine if your child also has that fear.  Your reaction to a snake, a spider, or a mouse can impact your kids.  What worries me the most  are the things that a kid can learn from the parent's.  More precisely, I am worried about passing hate to our kids.

When I think of all the things that a child can learn from their parents, the one thing that sickens me the most is hate.  It doesn't matter what form the hate takes either.  It could be racism, a hate for someone's religion, or homophobia.  Like I said, it doesn't matter what you hate.  Hating someone and not knowing why is wrong.  Let me correct myself, hating is wrong.  So my question is, why teach it to your kids? ( I know not everyone teaches their kids. )  It's time we ended the hate.

Kids need to be taught morals, respect, love for themselves, responsibility, honesty, and integrity.   I know there are some kids who are being taught to show respect to others, but there are others who aren't.  They need to know how to handle conflicts in their own lives.  They need to appreciate their belongs and the belongs of others too.  They need to know that they are okay.  They need to know that you love them without any conditions, PERIOD!