What’s the best way to teach our children important life lessons? I’m not a teacher and I have no formal training whatsoever, but if I were to guess, I would probably say a lot depends on the child’s personality, where they are in their development, and whether they learn best by seeing, hearing, or doing.

However, I was listening to this Brant and Sherri Oddcast episode the other day, and they pointed out how Jesus taught: he asks questions, tells stories, and lets people wrestle with the meaning. And he didn’t have set “classroom times” and “office hours.” He taught them wherever they were, as things came up.

Thinking about it, this seems like a great way to teach. Everyone likes stories–they’re so much easier to remember than a series of facts or bullet points. And when you’re challenged on something that comes up as you go through the day, it gets you thinking about it for a while, and you end up learning it so much better than when the information is spoon-fed to you.

Teaching My Kids Important Lessons

I think this is a great way for me to approach teaching my kids, too. Even though I’m not formally responsible for their education, there are a lot of lessons I’m naturally responsible for teaching them in my role as Mom. The example Jesus set of addressing questions as they came up reminds me of Deuteronomy 11:18-21:

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

The best time to teach my kids is all the time, no matter what we’re doing.

And it’s not just when I teach them, but also how. Sometimes it feels easier to just tell them the answers to their questions. But instead of just quickly answering, I think I should work on asking them more questions, help them think about it, and help guide them to the answer. In addition to allowing them to work their way through it (which will help them remember the answers better), it will also model the process of learning information and figuring out how to work through something they’re not sure about, which is definitely an important skill for them to learn!

What Do You Think?

I welcome your thoughts! What’s worked well for you and your kids?