Teaching Children the Need of Cleanliness

“You know something? he doesn’t take a bath regularly. Eeewww! His shirt is so dirty. Oh my God! Let’s keep a distance from him or else we will get an infection”. These are the kind of conversations that take place when people, especially women exchange between themselves when they see a dirty person.

We take a bath every day, wash our hands before eating something, wear washed clothes. We do all these to keep ourselves clean. Being clean is not a habit but a way to keep oneself hygienic. Practicing hygiene is not something that can be taught anytime, because once a person learns being lazy and dirty, hardly values cleanliness. Therefore, it is quite necessary to teach children the requirement of cleanliness right from their childhood period. However, before taking the vital step to teach the kids something, parents themselves should practice all the activities. When parents do such things, children find it obvious and start doing it without giving a second thought. On the one other hand, it becomes tough to teach anything to the kids very easily because unlike adults, they do not listen to anything minutely. However, like everything, there are a few tips which may help the parents to instruct and make the tots learn some of the habits. They are as follows:

• Teach your kids with citing examples, whether cleanliness is related with the way you live, the way you carry yourself, or even the way you keep your home well maintained. Normally, children go after what they see frequently. Therefore giving them examples makes the teaching-learning process much easier
• Opt for the step-by-step process to teach them anything. For instance, if you want to teach your children brushing teeth, teach them how to put toothpaste on the brush and continue with the process until you complete it
• Keep it in mind to not to complicate things because it may confuse them. Therefore, make the learning procedure simple and fun. Do not treat cleanliness as a chore, because it will make the kids avoid the learning process
• Practice makes a man perfect. Therefore, keep repeating the process every day until you find your child is used to it
• Buy books to your kids that are related to cleanliness. You can even add videos to the teaching process as a method of teaching them effectively
• Never forget to praise your kids, especially when they have done something remarkable. Also provide them with rewards whenever it is possible. This will help them to obey your instructions in a serious manner
• Do not punish your kids for small mistakes but correct them on spot, so that they can remember it
• It is also very much necessary to not to make the process very burdensome and full of confusions, as this will only make the entire procedure complicated
• Last but not the least, do not make any insulting comments when your kid makes any kind of mistakes

With these tips, it becomes far easier for the parents to teach their children the ‘mantra’ of cleanliness.