10 Easy “Honesty” Lessons For Your Children
by admin- Tags:
- Discipline
They say honesty is the best policy but many kids today are not being taught this vital life skill. Parents often inadvertently allow their kids to get away with lying, not realizing what kind of habit this can foster and how it can affect the rest of their life. Just as with Martial Arts or any other type of skill, honesty must be practiced in the home and community to ensure a child can fully embrace it with confidence.
When it comes to teaching honesty, lessons can occur at any time and anywhere. By embracing these moments, they will stick with a child and help them to gain valuable insight into being honest in their everyday life. These easy lessons are a great way to engage kids in being honest and showing them how important their trustworthiness is.
Lesson One:
Taking kids to a jewelry store is a great way for them to learn about the importance of honesty. Ask the jeweler to pull out a fake gem and a real one and have the kids look at them to see if they can tell which one is real. They will likely find it very difficult to be able to tell which is the authentic gem. Explain to them how important honesty is and ask them how they would feel if they purchased an expensive ring and found out they were lied to by the jeweler and it was a fake.
This is a great way to teach kids the value of honesty in a way that can truly make the consequences real to them. They will likely never forget such a lesson because they actively participated.
Lesson Two:
Presenting a child with a real-life lesson is one of the best ways to instill honesty. When grocery shopping, parents can talk with their child about the importance of honesty. Ask them what would happen if they bought two candy bars and the cashier only charged them for one. Ask them who would be responsible for paying for the candy bar. It can be beneficial to explain to a child that being dishonest is about withholding information too.
When a child is presented with the possibility of causing someone to lose their job, the weight of dishonesty will be something they will not soon forget.
Lesson Three:
Depending on their age, it can be helpful to hold a child to one promise a day and make sure they are accountable. Ask them to make one promise, such as cleaning their room or doing their homework. Reward them for their honesty if they complete the task without being reminded. If they do not keep their promise, they have to carry out two tasks instead of the one. This can show them there is a consequence to every dishonest act and breaking a promise is being dishonest.
This lesson shows kids they should not make a promise unless they plan on keeping their word. By doubling their tasks, they learn to face the consequences and how very important their word is.
Lesson Four:
Since most kids love ice cream there is a fun lesson everyone can enjoy that can help teach the importance of honesty. This lesson teaches kids how it makes matters worse when they attempt to cover up a lie. For this lesson, parents simply need to dish a scoop of ice cream and then talk to their kids about making bad choices. Explain that we all make bad choices and then sprinkle salt on the ice cream and make sure to tell the kids a mistake was made. Then cover up the salt with chocolate syrup so it cannot be seen anymore. Ask who wants a bite and watch their faces as they realize the salt could not be covered up by the syrup.
This is a fun lesson and very effective. Kids will not soon forget the taste of the salt in their mouth. Explain to them that it is always best to admit your mistakes instead of lying to cover them up because the cover up can often affect others.
Lesson Five:
Playing a family game of Go Fish can be a lot of fun for most kids, even those who are a bit older and think this type of thing is lame. The premise of Go Fish is to tell the truth or the game becomes frustrating for everyone. When someone asks another player if they have a 7, they expect to be told the truth. In this game, everyone can choose to be dishonest from time to time and see how it affects the game. As everyone struggles to make matches, they quickly find the game to be pointless and no longer any fun.
This can be used to show kids how truly important honesty is, even when it is a game. Ask them how they felt when they found out another player lied to them and caused them to lose.
Lesson Six:
This is a lesson that can be an ongoing one and can be carried out every day. When the family is sitting around the table for dinner. Each person can discuss a dishonest act they saw that day and how it affected them or someone else. As each person tells what happened, they should discuss what would have been a better choice for the person to make. Ask them how they would feel if the person was dishonest with them.
Real life examples are truly the best teaching method and offer a deeper meaning for kids because they can truly relate to it.
Lesson Seven:
An honesty bank is a great way to introduce the importance of honesty into a child’s everyday life. Each time a child tells the truth or keeps their promise, give them a penny to put inside their bank or jar. When they are caught in a lie or do not keep their word, take two pennies away from their bank. Once the bank gets filled up, they get a special reward like going out for a movie or ice cream. This will allow them to quickly learn the importance of honesty because it will be something that affects them directly.
A child will quickly begin to see the more honest they are, the more benefits they will receive and that lies can quickly drain their bank.
Lesson Eight:
When it comes time for family dinner, everyone wants to know what they are eating. Talk with them about how they would feel if they were told they were eating a certain food and were instead given a food they dislike. If they hate broccoli, it would likely make them upset to know it was in the food they were eating and they were not warned. Simple lessons like this take only a few minutes to carry out but can have a lasting impression on kids.
The more these simple lessons are incorporated into parenting, the better they will equip a child to be honest in their everyday life.
Lesson Eight:
Talk with kids about losing money and ask them how they would feel if they had worked hard to earn money by doing chores and keeping good grades only to drop their money while they were walking. Would they hope someone would be honest and pick it up so it could be given back to them? Now, present them with the possibility of finding money. Though it can be tempting to keep the money, how will the person feel who lost their money?
A simple lesson like this can make a big impact on kids. When you use real life examples, children pay more attention and the results will be lasting.
Lesson Nine:
Most children will find a block lesson to be fun and demonstrative of their need for honesty. Parents can get out some blocks and have their child name a time they were honest. Each time they name an honest moment, they put down a block and begin building their tower. Once their tower is growing, they must name a time they were dishonest and attempt to remove a block without causing their tower to come crashing down. They will soon realize how difficult it is to remove the block without causing damage and will realize all their hard work of building up a good character (their tower) can be destroyed with one single lie.
This is an excellent way to show kids the true value of honesty in a way they can fully understand. While incorporating play in the lesson, kids will take it to heart and will not feel as if they are bombarded with a school-like lesson.
Lesson Ten:
This method of teaching honesty allows for ongoing lessons that must be carried out on a daily basis. Enrolling kids in Martial Arts training allows them to have help with their parenting because it further instills the importance of honesty. A child who participates in Martial Arts learns how important it is to keep their promises each day by training and working out. If they fail to keep their promises, it hurts them and they will have no excuses for losing as they test. Children of all ages can take part in Martial Arts training and can benefit from its core principles.
Conclusion
These valuable lessons will give parents some helpful ideas for instilling honesty in their child. These lessons do not take long periods of time but they offer great benefits for kids of all ages. When lessons like these are carried out on a regular basis, parents will finally be able to see their parenting efforts truly paying off because they will see positive changes in their child.
These amazing lessons can be further enhanced with parental modeling. Parents who show their child honesty instead of telling them will be better able to instruct and mold their child into having an exemplary honesty trait. Although it takes time working at home, in the community, and in training opportunities like Martial Arts, kids can be inspired to become more honest each day of their lives.
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