How to Awaken Your Child’s Senses At Home
Chocolate chip cookies, family photos, hugs, a favorite song, and pot roast? What could these things possibly have in common? All of them are things we used to awaken our children’s senses at home.
In this post, you will discover how to awaken your child’s senses at home and why it’s incredibly important to your family now and in the future.
When you intentionally target your child’s sensory organs you are creating a memory of their childhood in their brain. Our children are adults, and it has become obvious to me the importance of the memories created.. Not only that but doing it at home creates a memory that will forever be associated with home and that is a great thing.
Truth be told, I would love to tell you we were intentional about awakening our children’s senses. However, it is something we learned was important from our own experience as parents. Think about how much greater of an impact you will have on your children if you are intentional about awakening your children’s senses! Keep reading!
God’s Intent for the Five Senses
First of all, what are the five sensory organs? These sensory organs include eyes for sight, ears for sound, nose for smell, tongue, and nose for taste, and skin for touch. God gave us senses to help us maneuver our way through this life and fully understand the beauty of the world He created.
Be Intentional And Awaken Your Child’s Senses at Home
I strongly believe this is an area we can be intentional about as moms in our homes. Being intentional has become a very prevalent word over the past several years and I absolutely love it.
When intentionality happens it can have profound and life-changing outcomes. And I believe with all my heart it is no different for the intentional mama.
As moms, we want our homes to be a place our children remember with love and fondness. We want our homes to be a place our kids love to be, now, AND for years to come. Additionally, we want our children to want to come home to visit as adults. Right?!
I have very specific memories that take me instantly back to my childhood. These memories are triggered by my senses. I wonder if you have those memories too. Take a minute or two to think about that.
As I think about all that moms do daily we awaken most if not all of our children’s senses. God, in his wisdom, designed us with these wonderful attributes that richly enhance our lives.
Our senses open up a world of beautiful feelings, experiences, and memories. They also have a huge impact on our feelings of home. Psalm 139: 14 says this.
Consider the amazing intricacy and creative thinking that went into creating us. Let’s take a look at these wonderful God-given senses individually.
Touch
Infants
It starts when they are babies. We have learned in recent years how imperative touch is to our babies. Skin-to-skin wasn’t a practice when my babies were newborns, but now it happens in their first few moments of life.
We now know the importance of physical touch on a newborn. In fact, there are residual effects throughout their life even into adulthood. Experts say we see the following with skin-to-skin contact.
Benefits of Skin-to-Skin
- Improved physical health
- More success with breastfeeding
- Improved attachment between parent and child
When you picture a mama with a baby, whether breastfeeding or bottle feeding the physical touch required is undeniable. Pulling our babies close while feeding is beautiful in the way God designed it. You can’t get more physical touch than that. This is no doubt a beautiful start to awakening our child’s senses.
Little Ones
Snuggling with your little ones while you read books or watch TV is just as important as the act of doing those activities. Sitting close to one another on the couch even as your children grow older can have a lasting impact.
My family has always enjoyed movie nights and they are some of our fondest memories together as a family. Movie nights are the perfect time to snuggle on the couch as a family. I sent a text to our family group chat asking them to text me their favorite family movies. You can see the Grant family favorites on that list below.
(Hit the arrow below to start and see the list)
Teens and Touch
Sometimes moms think they need to give their teens space. And, yes, of course, a little space is good. But as your teenagers go through those awkward moments of maturing I firmly believe this is a time when you need to lean in more. Don’t let them hide in their rooms or pull away from you.
Short and sweet touches
Try putting your hands on their shoulders when you check on them doing homework. Linking arms as you take a short walk around the block or are walking through a store. It is easy to do, non-threatening and doesn’t have to be long.
Arm-in-arm
Standing arm-in-arm even if just for a few minutes standing in the kitchen. My adult children will do this with me even in their 20s and 30s and nothing melts my heart more. You start it and they will continue.
Dancing
How about dancing as you listen to music? Grab their hand and swing them around, do the bump…if you are old enough to remember what that is. I really think we should bring that dance back.
These touches will awaken your children’s senses and remind them of how much they are loved at home. These short and sweet moments will create a feeling of love and a sense of safety in your home. It will promote a feeling of belonging and a healthy closeness even into adulthood.
Sight
Place items around your home that have meaning to you as a family. These are treasures that remind them where they come from. They can also remind your family what they are all about and who they are.
First and foremost, place pictures of your family around your home. These pictures should be happy pictures filled with special memories of specific times in their life.
We have several pieces of furniture in our home that we have taken with us from home to home over the years.
We have a vintage trunk from my husband’s great-grandpa. Our dining room table came to us from my parents when they downsized. We have a sweet picture of my mom when she was a young girl. Another favorite is an antique farm table that we made into a coffee table. It’s been in our family for 27 years.
These familiar sites around our home remain to this day and hopefully, awaken our children’s senses even still. I pray they bring to mind sweet memories each time they return home.
A few years back I created what is affectionately called my Gallery Wall Of Love. You can read all about it in my post How to Create A Gallery Wall of Love
When you walk in our front door or come down the steps and turn the corner you will see this wall. You cannot miss it and that is purposeful.
It says who we are and reminds us also of who we want to be. I can’t think of a better visual for my family to lay their eyes on every day.
Hearing
Here are some ways to awaken their senses through their hearing.
Words of Affirmation
Use words of affirmation on a daily basis if possible. This can change your child’s world. I would caution you not to use false affirmations but be sincere and genuine.
Sometimes it’s hard to find positive words for a particular child. I get that. That being said, find anything you can to lift them up and encourage them.
Positivity and affirmation are vital for your child’s confidence. It can actually change their outlook on life and will instill in them a desire to encourage and affirm others.
Laughter
Let your home be a place of laughter. This is a must. Have fun in your home and let your children hear you laugh. Be silly and let them be silly. Laugh at yourself in their presence and encourage them to laugh at themselves.
The ability to laugh at yourself is such an endearing quality and perhaps they will learn this quality from the example you set. I have been known to snort when I laugh really hard…and sometimes I can’t even get words out.
Music
Fill your home with music. Find songs to dance to, sing loud to, and worship God. Share with your children your favorite songs even if you have to make them listen to them. This way they have a sense of who Mom is and what she loves.
I have always loved James Taylor and I had to educate my kids on his music. It was important to me that they knew his music and who he was. They definitely think of me when they hear a JT song.
Smell
“Smells are a gift reopened long after their scent disappears”. I love this quote by Beka Jane Pogue from her book Choosing Real. This brings me to my point about having scents in your home. Scents imbed themselves into your children’s memories. They will remind them of home whenever they encounter a similar smell elsewhere.
We moved 6 times over the years. For every one of those moves, I had a scented candle and matches ready as we entered our new home. Lighting a candle, even before unpacking the moving truck, was the very first thing on the agenda. I was mindful of the fact that this would bring familiar smells and make my family feel like they were home.
A specific perfume, soap, or oil can remind your children of you or of your home. Scents like chocolate chip cookies baking, a roast in the crock pot, or the smell of bacon trigger memories for my kids. It might be a particular spice that you cook with often or apple pie or brownies or even chili.
Don’t underestimate the power of smell and how it affects our brains and memories. What smells permeate your home? I’m willing to bet you can name quite a few if you think about it!
Taste
Think about the kitchen in your home. For most of us mamas, it is the place we spend the majority of our time. Our kitchen is typically the center of our family life.
There is a saying, “A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. I think this is true for most people and honestly, I don’t think it only applies to men.
Every gathering we have is about food and revolves around what we are going to eat. Do you live to eat or eat to live? Most of us in my family live to eat.
Take advantage of the opportunity to create memories of home by finding a few of your family’s favorite foods. For my fam, chocolate chip cookies (see my post, Chocolate Chip Cookies: A Family Tradition), coffee, chicken puffs, flank steak, red velvet cupcakes, meatball parmesan, and more recently sourdough bread are some of our faves. Buttered popcorn for movie night is always a must!
Keep it Simple
On a side note, remember that your favorites don’t have to be elaborate and complicated. Keep it simple. If you take a minute to subscribe to my email you will receive one of our favorite family recipes. You can do that by going to the sidebar on this page.
Relationships Over Gourmet
Your meals don’t have to be gourmet. My recipes are yummy but simple. While I love to feed my family and guests I have learned that keeping it simple allows me to focus on relationships. It also allows me to not spend every minute in the kitchen.
Favorites
These foods (tastes) will remind them of the warm cozy feelings of home now and for years to come. It is actually fairly easy to plan meals when my kids are visiting home. They all have their favorites. I set the plan in motion a couple of weeks prior to arrival and do my best to prepare ahead of time. Again, more time to spend with them.
By targeting and awakening your child’s senses you can create an environment where your family feels loved and cared for. Home is where their senses are touched and WILL have a lasting impact on their feelings of home. It will create in them a desire to be at home and a desire to come back to visit when they are grown.
Home is Where You Are
My children are spread out in four different states and are living fruitful beautiful lives now. When we moved from our home of 14 years in Ohio to Pennsylvania I had some moments of doubt and tears. My concern was whether they would still consider our new home to be THEIR home.
It didn’t take long to see that my concerns were unfounded. Their senses were still touched in all the same ways they had been throughout their childhood. What I quickly learned is that where we are is where home is for our children. Our home still had the same sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and even touches they had always known.
Everyone is home for Christmas.
My children’s feelings of home didn’t revolve around a building but around us and everything we loved.
I pray that perhaps this has caused you to consider being more intentional about awakening your children’s senses. I would encourage you to be intentional and more mindful of the sensory organs of touch, sight, hearing, and smell and how they affect your children.
The ultimate goal is to create a home where your family feels loved and loves to be, now, and for years to come!
Much Love~Kim💗
LINKED BLOG POSTS:
Chocolate Chip Cookies: A Family Tradition
Modern Farmhouse Kitchen Makeover
How to Create A Gallery Wall of Love
