A Little Bit Off-topic: Educating children and blessings in vain

 Like the best of us, this week I didn't have time to read the parsha, so rather than wax philosophical on a subject I know nothing about, I'd like to share a halachic insight into teaching children blessings. 

It's universally accepted that using Hashem's name in vain is sinful. In fact, it resonates with, perhaps, the underlying meaning of one of the ten commandments. Whereas the Rambam writes that it's a mitzvah to swear in God's name to assert the veracity of a statement made - the same way I know God is true, likewise, the statement I've made is true - when one aberrates the meaning of God's name by uttering it falsely, it has the opposite effect. 

The question is thus asked, "When it comes to teaching children blessings, to teach them effectively you need to teach them to use God's name. At the same time, sometimes, they'll say the wrong blessing. Sometimes they'll say a blessing on a food item, when they have no intent to eat. Sometimes they'll say it in the bathroom, or on the toilet seat. What, then, are the boundaries of teaching children blessings?"

The answer that is accepted by all is that there is no problem whatsoever in teaching another blessings - adults included - when the end goal is sacrosanct. As such, interestingly enough, a student of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef of blessed memory told me and the others in a class at Pitchei Olam that Rav Ovadia was wont to instruct his children to bless repeatedly on the same food item. For example, was his son eating a popsicle, 5 minutes after the child had started eating, the Rav, his father, would say, "Bless again." And then 5 minutes later, "Bless again." 

Now, the question I'd like to raise has to do with a synthesis of two different halachic matters, on the one hand, the bounds of reciting blessings for educational purposes, and furthermore, the issue of stating a blessing when another blessing should have been said in its stead, and may ultimately need to be said.

For the first matter, what happens when for educational purposes you need to teach your child incorrectly so that conceptually he or she understands the parameters of a given law? These are two or three examples that come to mind. Often my wife and I dilute grape juice beyond the point where the blessing warranted would be "borei pri ha'gafen," blessed be the fruit of the vineyard. If we tell our daughters to say shehakol, a lower level blessing, i.e. the blessing said over mere water, that would confuse them. The color's a tint of purple, it tastes mildly sweet, in their thinking you should bless over the fruit of the vineyard. Likewise, when it comes to saying shehechiyanu to help my daughter's internalize the joy of new clothing and learn the blessing, I tell them to state the blessing even if they're not necessarily happy over a simple, new shirt. Lastly, sometimes, like all kids, mine wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and have no interest in doing netillat yadayim. Rather than absolving them, I tell them wash two fingers on each hand, simply for the sake of consistency; educationally, when something can be passed over, it easily becomes volitional, or voluntary. I'd rather them do the sacred act of washing their hands wrong, and state the blessing, because otherwise, they won't internalize the value it holds. 

Now, the second matter. The Magen Avraham, a very well known halachic luminary taught that if one were to have a situation where one didn't have a siddur, a prayer book, and he didn't know the after-blessing for cookies (al hamichya), then the person could say the lower-level bracha,  boreh nefashot, and then, were a siddur to come to his hands, he would then say the more genuine, authentic blessing, al hamichya. Rav Ovadia Yosef, Z"L, was adamant that the Magen Avraham was wrong. Rather, he taught, there is no instance we've found in halachic practice where one can recite one blessing, and then, if the right circumstances surface, say yet another, after having already said the first. Even, argued Rav Ovadia if one were in sheer wilderness - my father has told me that when hiking there have been times, where there wasn't a living soul for a square mile in any direction - he or she would not say a blessing whatsover, rather than say a blessing that sufficed, but did not constitute the maximal fulfillment of the recitation of the blessing. 

And thus, my question. Our oldest, Yocheved, doesn't know al hamichya. She knows boreh nefashot. (For a 6-year old to learn the text of al hamichya it would certainly take more than the timespan in which one is allowed to say a blessing after the consumption of a food.) After Yocheved finished eating a plate of crackers yesterday, I told her to say boreh nefashot. Do you think that Rav Ovadia would say I did the right thing? (Rav Ovadia ruled that if it is theoretically possible that a person would gain access to a prayer book, he cannot do as the Magen Avraham ruled. There, I would say the matter is exogenous, external to the situation at hand. Only God above knows if there is another traveler nearby. In this case, I would argue that it's endogenous, Yocheved, the person who has to recite the blessing doesn't yet have the cognitive faculties to state the appropriate blessing - and I think it's a contravention of Jewish education to impose upon a child a Jewish rite that at present is overly difficult, burdensome and onerous.)