Cultivating culture – Do's and Don'ts with children
                     Cultivating culture – Do's and Don'ts with 
children
  
  Uma Bharati
  Writes articles for Gurucool.fun, on topics like
  Indian culture for kids and Indian culture for children.
Culture forms an integral part of children's personality and behaviour and 
affects their mentality in a variety of ways. It is essential to infuse your kids 
with the right cultural values right from their childhood. While many parents 
are aware of this and try to cultivate culture among their children, many of 
them fail to make much progress. This is primarily a result of the parents not 
taking up the right approach to achieve this goal. Here are a few Do's and 
Don'ts that you may follow while cultivating culture among your kids:
What can you do?
· Take them to cultural programs: Attending cultural programs is an effective 
way to learn about the culture. One of the reasons behind this is that cultural 
programs are usually entertaining and it helps to cultivate culture among the 
kids in a fun way.
· Use examples to teach them about the Indian culture: One of the notable 
features of the Indian culture is that it is rich in examples. You may share 
these with your children, telling them about the good deeds of great people. 
Learning always becomes much more effective when examples are provided.
· Nudge them to make the right friends: Children are greatly influenced by 
their peers and this can be either an advantage or a disadvantage. If you help 
your children make friends with tradition-oriented kids certainly cultivate the 
Indian culture among them. Take your children's friends when you go out to a 
temple and share stories with them all so they grow together. 
· Use books and games: Children find books and games to be interesting and 
you can use them as a means to teach your kids about the culture. Expose 
your children to books and games that would give them a good impression of 
the Indian culture.
· Tell them stories: You might want to spend some time telling your kids 
stories from the Panchatantra and other similar books that would teach them 
cultural and moral values.
Other than these methods, you may also shape their personality by 
encouraging them to wear traditional clothing and encourage nutritious 
traditional foods. If you can afford it, you may also invest in events involving 
the Indian culture.
- Try to be flexible: Not every approach of disciplining works on every child 
and hence, inflexible methods aren't really the best. Try to keep strict and 
inflexible ways only as a last resort and help your children understand what is 
expected from them.
- Teach them to be optimistic: The best way to counter negativity is to think 
optimistically. Teach your kids to look at the brighter side of things. Optimistic 
children are also less likely to undergo depression during puberty or later 
stages.  
What shouldn't you do?
· Prevent unwanted influence: Allow your children to get acquainted with 
other kids even if they have different perspectives. The more they learn about 
other cultures, get them to be curious about our own Indian culture and 
share wow facts with them to fuel their curiosity. 
· Do not force your kids: If your kids aren't willing to make the choice you 
want them to, do not force them. Instead, find out the cause behind their 
choices and come up with ways to help them make the right decisions on 
their own.  
· Avoid repetitions: Over-teaching your children can have negative results. 
Make sure that you don't repeat yourself too many times and just focus on 
showing your child the way.
The cultural cultivation that a child undergoes plays an important when it 
reaches adulthood. If unaware of the native culture, the child may eventually 
feel alienated and out of place while trying to socialise. It would also become 
increasingly for your children to navigate through their personal and 
professional lives in that case. Cultivating culture among them at such a young 
age would prevent such failures.  
About Gurucool
Gurucool conceptualises and creates exciting games and activity kits for 
introducing positive values to children in a way they would appreciate & 
remember them. Our objective is to inspire young minds with ancient Indian 
wisdom in a fun way. We work hard to deliver the feel of Indian culture in a 
dynamic & interesting way it deserves to be learnt in to today’s kids.
Thank you for your precious time in reading this Article