One doesn’t need any elaboration on the importance of Habits in life. Isn’t it? “Good Habits make the quality of our life Good, Better and even Best!”. It is as simple as that.
Every Good Habit inculcated today makes our tomorrow easier. So it is very important to invest time in building right habits.
“Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Habits formed in early age will stay with us for long and it becomes one of the deciding factors in shaping one’s future. So every parent should make it a priority to build good habits in their children.
Here is a family game which we play to ensure that our daughter is on the right track when it comes to building good habits. It also helps us to keep her/our routine on check.
Game Name: Building Good Habits.
Participants: Entire Family.
Materials Required: One Colourful Family Habit tracker and a marker.
Rules of the Game: Participants can tick or cross on the tracking sheet depending on their compliance towards the habit, at the end of the month we count the ticks and the one with maximum number of points is the winner! :). You can keep points for each tick.
Few things to keep in mind:
- Make it interesting for kids by involving them while making the tracker and take their interest into consideration while adding habit names in the tracker.
- Depending on kid’s age, give them certain responsibilities to make this game work for every family member. For Ex: Ask them to check with everyone and mark tick/cross in the sheet, Ask them to monitor if all are genuinely following the rules or not, etc.
- Children learn by observing, so you yourself get involved in the game very seriously. Don’t just pretend to follow it for the sake of inculcating habits in them.
- Having small reward at the end of the month for the winners will motivate the child to get more ticks on the tracker.
- Encourage your child to stick to the rules by talking to them about the importance of healthy habits, reading them some story books which illustrates about following good habits, etc.
This method/game has helped us immensely in bringing discipline to our 7 year old daughter’s routine in a fun way and also helping us to form some new habits. It is very satisfying to see the proud grin on my daughter’s face when she is declared as the winner of the month!!! 🙂
It is worth to strive for the right habits, as it can change your life for the better. What makes it more worthy is, kids trying to emulate you after some point of time!
