Faithful Thoughts: "Teaching Moments"- (Lula Mae)

I'm a talker. I can yakkity yak until the cows come home and find that I have said nothing of substance. Add to that the fact that I am a lecturer, and well, you can guess I have a lot of hot air. My instinct is to teach my children by discussion. I have often come away from my "teaching moments" quite self-satisfied at my performance only to have my child display no understanding of what I "taught". I have also come away from lessons taught to me only to choose not to learn anything from the giver of the lesson because I deem it unnecessary. After recognizing my weaknesses as a mother, I've decided I need to turn my "teaching moments" into "learning moments".

Lisa is spot on when she says we teach our children by what we say and do. I think children learn far more by watching than from "being taught". I guess that the goal of my teaching has expanded from teaching a certain principle to trying to show them how to learn from the lessons of life. Really, to hopefully instill in them a desire to take notice and make changes. Obviously, we need to make sure our children know how to do very obvious tasks. Things like making their beds, brushing their teeth, doing homework and making good choices. Those things take concerted moments of instruction. But then there are the intrinsic lessons of life that come from experience and thought. I think that by asking our children about their perception of an event or lesson helps them to recognize and internalize what they have just been presented with. I hope that my children can recognize a "learning moment" when it is presented to them. This method is still a work in progress because, as I said before, I like to lecture. It's far more difficult for me to ask my child "what did you think of that?" or "did you learn anything from that experience?" than it is for me to explain to them what I think they should have learned.

After all these posts I realize how precarious and blind the job of parenting is and how many things I need to change and improve. Talk about on the job training! I'm grateful for this chance to really think about different aspects of my motherhood. I hope that I can be an example of learning to my children. Ultimately, I hope I can teach my children how to learn.