Habit Training for Kids

Assalamo Alaikum. 

I'd really like to begin my blog with the topic of habit training. Al ghazali said, “if good habits are ingrained in the child and if he/she is instructed in knowledge, then the child after gaining such excellent upbringing, achieves the real success of this life and of the life hereafter. And if bad habits are nurtured in a child and he is left unattended like animals, then he/she gets destroyed after becoming ill mannered.”

The fact is you can train your child by helping him form a habit in anything you want. A well known educator said, “The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets their habits take care of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children.”

So the more you work on forming habits when they are still young, the easier it will be for you when they get older. The habits that we are forming are an investment that will benefit them in the future InshAllah. Think of all the habits that you wish you had learned as a child and how much they would have made your life easier now.

Now the question is, what do you think are the most important habits we should work on...

Don’t limit your habits to routine acts that you want your kids to perform, brush teeth, comb hair, make the bed etc. Think of habits that will actually better their character.

I will begin the list with some of the most critical for me and would love to hear your ideas.
obedience
Cleanliness
Kindness
Neatness
Generosity
Patience
Respect
Thinking
Personal Initiative
Health

InshAllah I will attach a full document with different habits under different categories that would be beneficial to work on with our children.