Mentoring your Child

A few years ago, I was driving home with my 8 year old daughter. She had messed on her hands doing a craft and was busy cleaning them with a wet wipe. When she was finished, she was just about to throw it out the car window when I stopped her in great alarm! It turns out that I had never 'taught' her that it was wrong to throw litter out a car window and that this was supposedly never taught at school. It made me realise how important it is to consciously teach our children right from wrong in a mentoring kind of way. By mentoring them, we have the ability to come along side them and help them to learn right from wrong, by sharing with them the consequences of their actions, thereby helping them to understand life's lessons for themselves. We really need to let them learn from our own mistakes and not just have a 'Because mum says so' attitude. I remind myself that children are like sponges, constantly learning from our example, and eager to learn what we have to teach them. But they are also like blank canvases that need to be instructed and fed with knowledge and truth!  
As a recent Home educator, I realise the importance of using every opportunity to teach them something.  I like to think that I'm following the 24/7 Curriculum of constant learning! The great thing is, that as a Christian, it is amazing how often things in the natural can so often give us lesson about God!