H is for Honesty – Importance of telling the truth

How do you teach a child the importance of telling the truth? Lectures and words usually don’t work with children. How then do you teach them the importance of honesty and sincerity? We dealt with this subject as part of the Manners for Children series.

H is for Honesty that is speaking the truth. We talked about

• Why people tell lies and what it makes them feel. I used real life examples of when son wants to play on the tablet but mommy has said to only do his assignments and return it. How he has sneaked in some time to play a game. When mommy asks he denies. What will happen if he accepts the truth? How he can convince his parents to let them see his point of view…
• We talked about the fact that jokes are lies too. We used a ball of yarn to entangle him in a web. I was funny but this is a 5 minute lesson that he will remember.
• How if you tell one lie and hold on to it instead of confessing and making amends it can get into a bigger mess.

How to demonstrate this Five Minute Lesson”

• Take a ball of elastic yarn. Tie a small toy to it. Tell him to think of the toy as a ‘lie’. Ask your child to hold the toy.
• Take the yarn around him and ask if he wants to let go of the toy. That means he isn’t letting go of his lie. Ask him to say NO. You will take the elastic yarn around him. It will get stretched and tighter around him. Purposefully make it tight around him so he knows he is getting trapped.
• Again ask if he wants to let it go. Make it fun. We were giggling all the time! When he finally let go, the elastic because of being released went back to its size thereby (almost) releasing him.

I told him how he was all wound up and getting in a tighter spot because of holding on to his ‘Lie’ but how the problem ‘resolved’ once he let it go. This was an easy lesson to learn the importance of telling the truth.