What should we be teaching young children?

ra_mom

Tue, Jun 01 2021, 1:01 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I am a giyores. We are yeshivish.What and how are we supposed to be teaching kids from 0-3?

And from 3-6?

Lessons? Middos? Hashem? Alep beis? Basic social/emotional skills? Let me know.

I mean in terms of chinch, yiddishkeit.

Basically just involve them in your day. The things you are doing can be done on their level so they see and get involved.

Wake up, wash Negel Vasser and sing Modeh Ani out loud together with baby/toddler.

Say Brachos out loud. When child starts to speak, prompt them with Brachos (when they're starting to eat, slowly say Braruch, Atah, Amen! and clap your hands with delight). Slowly this will build with them repeating the words after you. Then you'll slowly increase with more words of the Brachos. It's a slow and steady ongoing build up.

Sing Shema sweetly each night with them (cover your eyes during the Shema passuk, whisper loudly the Baruch Shem Kavod passuk). As your child begins to talk and copy, slow down and include them.

Kiss the Mezuzah with them. Make a game of it. It's so much fun to involve them.

Daddy should kiss his Tzitizus and Tallis in front of the children. Kiss the Siddur and Sefarim. It's so cute when little ones start kissing books as they close them.

Read them Jewish children's books from when they're babies. Point to the pictures. Introduce them to Jewish life.

They should be involved in Kiddush and Havdallah. Challah. Hear singing of Birchat Hamazon.

Talk about Hashem. Hashem is so good to me- he gave me you! Thank you Hashem for this great parking spot! Hashem, please send someone to help us open this locked door.

You've got this- all you've got to do is involve them which you probably are doing already!

amother

Tan

Tue, Jun 01 2021, 1:04 pm

I would add
Model loving hashem and having hashem in your life.
Oh thank you hashem for helping me make these challahs come out just right.
Thank you hashem for the sun today so we can BBQ.
Etc
Also hashem loves when you share like that. I'm proud and of course the malachim are singing and clapping in shomayim
Sentences like that. Not ott but once a day or every other day, for sure.
Show them how good they feel when another kid smiles BC they smiles at them or shared or invited them round to play. Etc

Aylat

Tue, Jun 01 2021, 1:15 pm

DS1.5 learned how to give kisses so I put my siddur or bentcher next to his face when I've finished using it and when he gives it a kiss, I tell him, "what a tzaddik!" with a big smile.
Similarly we have a game where I carry him from door to door all round the house and he kisses the mezuzas and I say to him, "we love the mitzvot!" Of course, he doesn't understand any of it yet.

I used to make a parsha cake with my preschoolers for shabbat each week. My cake decorating skills are very basic (!) but with some imagination in the eye of the beholder, we managed to come up with a tasty parsha related dessert. I also printed out parsha colouring pages for them from Aish.com.

keym

Tue, Jun 01 2021, 1:16 pm

Aylat wrote:

About brachot - I learned that children should not be taught to say brachot until they understand, at least on a basic level, who Hashem is. Normally that is around 4 or 5. With my younger kids I would say, "thank you Hashem for the yummy food!" when I fed them/gave them food.

Similar. Under 2, I'd say Thank you Hashem for Carrots. Thank you Hashem for Milk.
As they reached 2 1/2, I'd expand Thank You Hashem for Milk, shehakol niheyeh bidvaro. No shem umalchus. Just starting to teach the Bracha.
At 4, I started Brachos.
My Rav holds not to say Amen to a child's Bracha under 5/6. When a little child says a Bracha, we respond "OK".

amother

Ecru

Tue, Jun 01 2021, 1:33 pm

Aylat wrote:

That's so interesting, I was specifically taught to say brachos with children who can't even talk yet but understand that you're saying a bracha. Maybe ask your Rav OP, I never knew there were different opinions on this