20 Essential Ideas to Help Create a Better Family

5 Ideas to Help you Teach Correct Principles

Here is the last installment in my notes from Randall Wright’s class at Education Week this August. For the first three days, click 1, 2, and 3.

President David O McKay said, “No greater responsibility can rest upon any man, than to be a teacher of God’s children.” –October 1916 General Conference

President Harold B Lee said, “You are to teach the doctrines not so plainly that they can just understand, but so plainly that there can be no misunderstanding.”

Rules without relationship=rebellion!

Children who answered a survey about what made their favorite teachers so good answered: “Loved me; Believed in me; Concerned about me; Spent one on one time with me; Helped me succeed, Trusted me; Patient; Accepted me; Asked my opinion….”
Why should we be any different as teachers of our own children?

So on to the last 5 tips:

16) Do our children know they are LOVED?

Children don’t care so much what you DO if they know for sure that they are loved. Look at day #1 for tips on creating a more loving environment at home.

17) Great teachers SURROUND AND IMMERSE their students in the subject their teaching. We should immerse and surround our children with the gospel.

Brigham Young said, “Whether surrounded with error or truth, …..it will stick.” –Journal of Discourses 13:243

Whatever your children are surrounded by—what they see and hear every day—will become their truth!

18) Great teachers are great LEADERS

Things influential leaders share:
Believe in cause
Passionate about cause
Willing to take action for cause.

19) The ATTITUDE of the teacher is critical!

Neal A Maxwell said, “At the center of our agency is our freedom to form a healthy attitude toward whatever circumstance we are placed in.” –November 1976 Ensign

Great leaders have great attitudes! (at least the ones people wasn’t to follow!)

20) Start and maintain TRADITIONS in the home

We just talked about traditions today in church—the way that good traditions create family unity and bring us closer together. I am eager to start some new Christmas traditions this year. I want to start some meaningful, Christ-centered traditions (things that go beyond the cooking and the presents).

PB and I were asked to share some of our Christ-centered traditions and we shared the fact that we remove our regular books from the shelves and pack away the regular movies. We pull out our Christmas books (I have collected a billion stories and children’s books) and Christmas movies and even some special Christmas toys (we have two Nativity sets that are for the kids to PLAY with). We play Christmas music. We IMMERSE our children in Christmas so that everything that they are seeing, hearing, and reading is Christmasy for the month of December. The kids are SO eager for December to start so they can pull out these once-a-year treats. I think it sets a great tone for the season. I think it’s cool that our Christmas tradition incorporates two of this week’s tips. I hope that my kids also know that they are loved, so that’s 3. :)

So my question to you today is: What are your favorite and most meaningful Christmas traditions? Or what did you do as a child that stands out the most in your mind today?

About Lolli

Lolli has written 3740 post in this blog.

I became a mom in 1996, and in 2005 I had my fifth. Yes, 5 kids. In 2007, this blog was born (my 6th baby that will never grow up) and I've been sharing recipes, photography tricks, parenting tips, and everything in between. (Formerly Better in Bulk)

About Lolli

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