Looking for an easy way to teach your child your phone number? I heard this a while ago and promptly smacked myself on the head that I hadn’t thought of this — so I thought I’d share in case you are also looking for an easy way to teach your child your phone number.
Here’s the tip: use your phone number for your technology passcode.
A bit of backstory here: both of my sons learned my phone number somewhere around age 5, but I’m 99% sure that both of them immediately forgot my number after the teacher moved on to other things. So when I heard that someone had made the passcode their own cell phone number I thought, WHOA, that makes so much more sense than the random 4-digit number I use for all of my passcodes. My kids have known that random number by heart since they were wee babes, so the idea of them knowing my phone number by heart seemed imminently doable.
So when we recently set my 8-year-old son up with his own computer, I made his login password my full cellphone number, and pinned it to the monitor so he could look at it and type it out. Within days (not even kidding) he had it memorized and didn’t need to look at the printout even more. Amazing.
Note that your phone number obviously is excellent to have in case of emergencies — but it also makes a good “code word” (or alternate code word) if you’re out and about with your child and a stranger comes up. “What’s Mom’s phone number?” Stranger doesn’t have it. “Whoops, I hear Dad calling, I have to go!” (Or, as I cheerfully advised my son, if you happen to be standing by a van with an open door, please run!)
If you’re not sure how to change your passcode on your iPhone, here are some screenshots that may be helpful… basically, go to Settings -> Touch ID & Passcode -> Change Passcode –> Passcode Options –> Custom Numeric Code (if you want to put in all nine digits of your phone number). (pictures below)
Readers, have you tried to teach your child your phone number? How did you do it — and how often do you reinforce safety discussions like that?
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anon says
I made up a jingle. Little kids memorize words to songs really easily, so we sang it all the time. Also, I got a Google voice number with the last 4 numbers that were the same as our address, so they could memorize both at the same time.
8675309 says
I have another idea to help with this, tape it on the back of the headrest in the car so the kiddo always sees it when riding.
Anonymous says
Ha, my childhood phone number is the passcode for my work mobile phone, and I still never thought of this! I don’t *want* my kids to be able to unlock any devices on their own, but this would definitely work.
B says
Great idea! We turned ours into a song took about a week for 4 year old.
CHA says
Empire theme [mic drop]
Anna says
Thank you for sharing this article on the Corporette Werkly News Update. An article like this is much more enticing to me than the weekly reminder that “We offered some clothes for working moms, including some maternity basics and washable workwear.” Thanks for the interesting read and valuable trick!
Amanda says
Also used the song method set to the ABCs/twinkle twinkle little star melody. Kids learned my number at age 4/5.