(Clearwisdom.net) After reading the article "How do we think about our children as Dafa practitioners?" published on the Minghui website (Chinese edition of Clearwisdom.net) November 21, 2003, I got some pointers on teaching my child, who is under six, to study Dafa and learn Chinese. What follows is a summary of my experiences.
As soon as my son could speak clearly, I taught him to memorize some of the poems from Master Li's book Hong Yin, like "New Life" and "Smile". By the time he was two years old, he could recite many of the poems. But, when I was illegally sent to a forced labor camp by Jiang's regime, my son, who was then two years and four months old, gradually forgot what he had learned. After I was released, I resumed teaching him to study Dafa.
On my son's fourth birthday, I wrote out the poems in Teacher's Hong Yin one by one and stuck them on the wall. Then, I taught my son to memorize and recite one of the poems every day. Sometimes on his way to and from kindergarten classes, I asked him to recite Teacher's poems. After he had memorized all of Hong Yin, I started writing down some of the shorter Dafa articles and asked him to learn them too. Eventually, he could recite "Lunyu", "For Whom Do You Exist?" and other articles. Now my son can recite many Dafa articles, and also reads Zhuan Falun, and has started copying it out by himself. Although he writes slowly, what he has written down has left him with a deep impression.
Recently, he asked to listen to the Teacher's recorded lectures each evening before he goes to bed. Children are also here for the purpose of attaining Dafa, so we should not be confined by our concepts that they are too young to learn Dafa or understand Dafa. He understands whatever he should know. One time I asked him, "What's your strongest attachment?" He answered, "It's the mentality of showing off." He could also point out my attachments, and can look at himself according to Dafa standards.
Of course children are naughty sometimes, so it's the parents' responsibility to guide them to study Dafa every day. Except for teaching him the principles of Dafa, I also tell him stories about other cultivators. He especially enjoys listening to the stories of young practitioners. Sometimes I let him contact Dafa practitioners to help him be more active in cultivation. One other thing we should tell our children is: they have been born into Dafa practitioners' families so they can learn about Falun Dafa, so they should be sure to cherish it!
12-2-2003