The litter tray and the scratching post come first
Of all the early lessons, tray reliability shapes daily life the most, and fortunately it builds on instinct: place her in the tray after meals and naps, keep it clean and accessible, and praise quiet success. The scratching post is its twin lesson, taught by placement and redirection from the first day, so her natural urge to scratch, stretch and mark lands on the post beside her bed rather than on the furniture she will otherwise choose permanently. Both lessons are really about arranging the environment so the right choice is the easy choice, then rewarding it until it is habit. A kitten who has mastered these two is already, in practical terms, a civilised housemate, whatever else is still to come.
Handling, pickups and the carrier
Teach her that human hands predict safety: brief, supported handling that ends while she is calm, paw and ear touches paired with treats, and micro-lifts that grow gradually into real pickups. These are not affection exercises alone; they are rehearsals for every health check, claw trim and examination of her adult life, and a kitten who accepts them needs far less stressful restraint later. The carrier belongs in the same group of lessons. Left out as furniture, entered for treats and naps, and closed in tiny stages, it becomes her safe travelling den rather than the box that means the car. None of these lessons requires a formal training session; each is a dozen small repetitions folded into feeding, play and cuddle time across her early weeks.
Her name and the beginnings of recall
A kitten who turns and comes when her name is called owns a safety skill disguised as a party trick, because that response is how you will interrupt her on her way into a closing door, an open cupboard or a visitor's path. Teach it by paying for it, every time, with food or play she values, and protect the cue by never using it to summon her for something unpleasant. Short sessions at close range, gradually stretched across rooms, build a response the whole family can use. Alongside the name, she is learning the household's rhythm itself: when meals come, when play happens, when the house goes quiet, and a kitten who can predict her day is a calmer animal in every other lesson you teach.
Play rules and settling
Finally, teach the social curriculum: toys take the biting, never hands; a game pauses when teeth meet skin; and calm behaviour earns attention as reliably as wild behaviour earns interruption. Add a settle spot, a bed or mat where quiet lying down is rewarded after play, and you are teaching the off-switch that adolescent cats are famous for lacking. These lessons matter because they are the ones most often skipped in favour of cuter training, and the ones whose absence is felt daily for years. If progress stalls on any item in the early curriculum, shorten the steps and raise the rewards before concluding anything about the kitten; the teaching pace, not the pupil, is almost always the variable that needs adjusting.
One curriculum for the whole family
Early lessons fail by committee when each person teaches a private version: one allows hand play, another uses a different word for calling her, a third carries her everywhere while a fourth is teaching her to walk to the carrier. Write the curriculum down, briefly, with the exact cues and rules, and keep it where the household works from it daily. KinsLe Family Sharing keeps those first-lesson notes on your kitten's profile, shared with the family who help raise her, so the kitten hears one consistent set of lessons from every teacher she has.