FHE: Trust

We have had issues with our kids telling the truth lately, and we wanted to demonstrate why it's important to always tell the truth so that you will gain a reputation of trustworthiness.

This was a simple exercise but also very effective.

Daddy put a piece of candy in one of his hands behind his back and showed me which hand had candy.  Then he put his hands out front and said that the kids had to guess, and that I knew where it was.  After the kids had decided on a hand, I incorrectly told them which hand had candy in it.  They trusted me and then didn't get the candy.  We did it again.  Again, I told them the wrong hand, and again they trusted me and didn't get the candy.  The third time, I told the kids the correct hand that really had candy in it, but the kids didn't believe me and chose the wrong hand again.

My son got very upset and said, "MOM!  I'm never trusting you again!!" and this was a great way for me to talk about some times during the week when the kids didn't tell the truth and how I feel like I can no longer trust them.  We talked a bit more about how we have to be honest for the world to function properly - there needs to be trust for everyday business transactions etc.

In the end, we all promised to tell the truth all the time.

FHE- Honesty (Take 2)

After the failed ice cream analogy, I thought I'd try this "Lie Monster" lesson on for size.

I think it went over much better.  It's amazing how much more engaging a story is for young kids when you have a visual aid!  I laminated it to save for future use.

FHE: Honesty

I saw this "cute" object lesson meant to teach the principle of honesty, or rather that you can't "cover up" a lie by letting ice cream represent you or your life, and then you sprinkle salt on top of it (that's the lie) and then you pour chocolate syrup over that to "cover" the lie.  You ask the kids if they think it will taste good, and then get them to eat the ice cream with the "lie" still there and they're supposed to think it tastes salty and gross, etc. etc.  WELL, we did it and everyone agreed it was really good.

hahaha.

I guess I should have used more salt...

FHE: Honesty

I admit, I wasn't very well prepared for this one, so it was more of a quick discussion and it was a testament to me at how much better the kids pay attention when I have some kind of visual aid or have prepared better.

We just asked the kids if they knew what honesty, lies, and truth meant.  (and helped them if they didn't.)  We asked them to think about what might happen if you are dishonest- giving specific examples like daddy would lose his job if he wasn't honestly doing his work; we would lose our house if he told us he was paying the mortgage, but didn't really.

We also talked about how when you are dishonest, people will not trust you or what you say.  For example, if we didn't trust what my son said, we might make him do a chore twice because we wouldn't believe that he did it when he said he did.  Or, we might not give him a treat because we thought he took one already, even if he didn't (and said he didn't).

Finally, we mentioned that it's not always easy to be honest, especially when it might get you in trouble and I pointed out that I was proud of my 4-year-old son for telling me that he hurt his sister earlier that day, even though it might have been easier to say he didn't make her cry.

I would like to revisit this topic- I'm sure there is a better way to present it to young children.  I just found this link, and that looks pretty fun AND even Halloween appropriate :)