John F. Kennedy said, “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.” Thus, it is important to mold our children while they are still young so that they can step out safely into the ever-challenging society in our world today.
However, there are seemingly so many things that we must do for our future generation yet extremely little time to do so.
Hence, as passionate educators at 72storeyeducation, we have researched and discovered these 5 Good Habits that children must have while they are still young.
- A Habit of Healthy Eating
According to WHO, 39 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2020.1 This has been an increasing problem all over the world especially in developed countries such as United States and Singapore.
We highly recommend that we should follow the guidelines of HPB in Singapore (https://www.healthhub.sg/live-healthy/1256/cultivating-healthy-habits-in-your-pre-school-child) and as parents, let us lead by example so that our children are not alone in eating healthily.
- A Habit of Time Management
We live in a society where “Time is money”. It is inevitable that time will always be a finite resource to any individual and will only continue to diminish.
Therefore, from young likely from preschool onwards, we must plant the seed of time management into our children by encouraging punctuality and setting a regular bed-time routine.
Educate them that there may be consequences for not being punctual, example: If the child spends more time on eating, then he would have less time playing.
Sleep together with your children as this will induce security and sound sleep in them.
- A Habit of Gratitude
In an article published by Harvard Medical School in Harvard Health Publishing in 2021, Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.
One of the most underlying issues by observing today’s society is that people take things for granted. This stems from the fact that most people did not develop the habit of gratitude from a young age.
Most parents teach their children to say “Please” and “Thank you” but these are just the basic motions of gratitude. It is thus important to let our children be truly grateful by tying their emotions to these actions.
We can do so by asking questions, for example: When the child receives a gift [example sweet], ask the child, “How do you feel?” And the child most likely replies, “Happy!” or just a smile to express joy. Then, tell the child, “If you are happy, you should say Thank You to [who gave the gift].”
Do this on a consistent basis and your child will naturally cultivate the habit of gratitude and as a bonus, your child will have more patience and perseverance.
- A Habit of Sharing
We always hear this phrase “sharing is caring” but today, we can observe that there is a decline of empathy and a rise of narcissism in our society according to the American Psychological Association. The need for the advocacy of this commonly heard phrase “sharing is caring” simply proves that there is not enough proper love and care in our society.
As such, the ability for our children to love and care for others, while it should be innate, is very worth cultivating and not to be hidden as they will become the new cornerstones of our society.
We can educate our children to build this habit by simply informing them how sharing doubles the joy they have which builds on the habit of gratitude as they feel blessed enough to have what they have while others may not have, and this should not be limited to just tangible items such as toys and food.
- A Habit of Reading/Learning
Reading forms the foundation of language literacy, imagination, and creativity. It is also the first step for our children to understand the world. The love for reading in our children can be sowed by simply making it part of their playtime and bedtime routine.
Choose books which make reading fun for them. Do this daily as it will also help build our children’s self-esteem and most importantly improve relationship and communication with us, the parents.
In our article: Where can I find materials for my children to have a head start?
Conclusion
The above are the 5 most important habits we feel that our children should have but the most crucial tip we want to give you, the parent, is that you are the leading example for your child.
Appendix
1 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight
3 https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/empathy-narcissism