Ways to Encourage and Develop the Humorous Nature of Kids

A sense of humor is an extremely important asset to get through life, and as many of us can testify from firsthand experience, not everybody has one. Because having a good sense of humor is so necessary it's a smart parent who encourages the development of one in their child.

It takes more than just telling funny jokes to kids, to help your child's sense of what's funny to bloom and grow. You have to work at it. Here are some ways that will help.

Share the Laughter

What would family life be without a sense of humor thrown into the mix? Pretty dull, right? Well, it's easy to make a baby or toddler laugh. Just about everything amuses them, whether you intended for it to or not. You can tickle them senseless, make silly faces, toss them up and down in the air and whatnot.

As long as you and your kids are laughing together and having fun then it's just fine. You can even purchase some hobbies for kids that the two of you can share, and have lots of fun with, laughing and talking over things while you work.

Having a finely developed sense of humor will help your child to be smarter and better prepared to handle the challenges that come up in life without coming unglued.

What you as a parent have to keep in mind is that humor is not something that you're either born with or not. Laughing is a learned art and you need to be a good teacher.




Remember Humor Changes With Age

While you might be able to make your baby or toddler laugh by playing peek-a-boo, or making them fly like an airplane, there also comes a time when they are going to get the knack and try to make you laugh in return. This usually occurs in the preschool years. It's also at this time that your child will begin to see humor in pictures that have something wrong with them. For example, a bus with missing wheels, a dog wearing a hat, a man with his shirt on inside out, etc. They also find strange, off-the-wall sounds like a cat that barks, or a bird that yodels funny around this time too.

Once your children are ready for kindergarten and grade school, they are also ready to appreciate some simple funny jokes for kids. Unfortunately, this is also the age when your child may learn a funny joke and repeat it time and time again until you want to scream. Be patient.



Show Your Own Sense of Humor

You can help your child to grow their sense of humor by showing them how easy it is for you to use your own sense of humor:

Try to maintain an even balance in life between the funny and the serious. But as your children get older, making them laugh becomes harder, especially as they enter their preteens and teens, which for some can be a rather gloomy time. Working on hobbies for kids, or joking around just isn't going to cut it like it used to.

That's when you need to remember that you child is also entitled to some down time from being happy. It's not a requirement to be happy all the time in order to live a full and interesting life. Try some gentle teasing, remind them of old family jokes, etc., and above all love them. Given time they will come around and be their old cheerful selves again.

Mark Long is an expert in children's behavior and has written several books on the topic, including how to give your child a sense of humor Click here to check it out or hobbies for kids as a way to laugh together with them and encourage them to find the humor in life.



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