It’s always important to convince your child that they can succeed. Children often have a lot of self-doubts, due to the many challenges of childhood, such as peer pressure and competitiveness at school. As a result, as a parent we should try to find ways to not only encourage our children, but actually inspire them to find ways to reach their own personal best.
At the core of a child’s ability to do their best is their sense of self-confidence, self-worth, and self-esteem. While it’s important to have a certain amount of discipline in the household, we should take care to approach this more from the aspect of reinforcing good behavior, and less from a standpoint of calling attention to bad behavior. When children receive praise and encouragement, they often become inspired to achieve more. A good way of doing this is to make an effort to notice and compliment the things that your child is doing, even if they are small actions.
Another factor that is of critical importance to a child’s personal level of achievement is their ability to think for themselves. As busy parents, it can often be easier to simply give our child the answers to questions they might have, or even solve problems for them. Although this saves time for us, it isn’t giving our child a chance to explore their own thinking processes and problem-solving abilities. Instead of being too quick with providing the solution, we should ask their child what their thoughts are. If their answer is only partially correct, or even completely incorrect, we need to help them figure out a way of coming to the correct conclusion on their own. Once a child becomes confident in their own critical thinking skills, they will be better prepared to achieve their goals.
It’s also important to realize that not everybody has the same strengths and skills. We should be encouraging our child to do the best they can in everything, but by focusing specifically on our child’s particular skills and talents, they will become encouraged to work even harder on these types of activities. This can be a huge confidence-builder, because they will be achieving a higher level of success at the things they are good at. Just as is the case with adults, when a child realizes that they excel at a particular activity, they often become inspired to take their talents to new levels of achievement. You can help your child discover what they excel at by exploring many different subjects with them, even if they are not subjects they are currently learning in school.
It’s also important to help your child find ways to make work fun, so that they develop a good work ethic early in life. There are many things parents can do, such as recognizing, encouraging and rewarding good work. Children, especially when they are young, are often overwhelmed by the complexity of tasks, and as a result become discouraged. You can help prevent this by helping your child learn to break jobs down into smaller manageable tasks, so that they continually experience success as they work their way towards the completion of the overall goal. Remember, the skills and habits that a child learns when they are young ultimately become the building blocks they will use to achieve success for the rest of their lives.
I recently found this video on Youtube. Kids breaking cup stacking records. While I doubt there is a job for a professional cup stacker, I may be wrong, the lessons these kids learned are invaluable in their adult lives. In accomplishing this feat they must have learned perseverance, patience, team work (for the team record), and most importantly never to give up and learn from your failures. What is important is to encourage our kids whatever their interest may be, because the skills they learn now, are the skills they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Now here is the video, watch with your kids, I am sure you will enjoy and be amazed:
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