"When you don't see your worth, you always choose people who don't see it either." When your self esteem rises, your life follows." Mandy Hale
Parenting is tough! We understand... Aside from wanting to ensure that your child has the best of everything including the best school, the best medical aid, and the best security, you also want to ensure that your child performs to his or her best abilities. Many parents place emphasis on school performance, and rightly so. However, many children can't succeed academically and parents cannot seem to understand why. Even children who are guided by the best of the best tutors and have parent support for homework and revision may fail to produce the grades that they are capable of producing. To a certain extent, the lack of confidence seen in a child's academic work is directly linked to the lack of confidence that a child may be experiencing.
If there is one thing that you can help your child perform better at school, it is an improved sense of self confidence and self esteem. It is never too early or too late to start training your child to become more emotionally intelligent.
When you take your child on an emotional journey, you must remind your child to start the journey with his or her heart, but you will also have to tell your child to take his or her head with. It is on this journey that you will also learn that although we tend to use the terms self esteem and self confidence synonymously, they are actually slightly different.
Self esteem refers to the way that a child sees himself or herself. A child with a positive self esteem will see himself or herself in a positive light whereas a child with negative self esteem will see himself or herself rather negatively. Self confidence, on the other hand, is the result of positive or negative self esteem as it deals with the way in which a child handles himself or herself in any given situation.
While many children can appear to be self confident without having a high sense of self esteem, the secret to living an emotionally balanced life is to have a positive self image along with a positive sense of self esteem and full self confidence.
So while you are trying your best to help your child succeed academically, also place a focus on how your child is fairing emotionally. There are ways that you can encourage your child to build his or her self esteem.
Success in building your child's self esteem is possible with Superprof as we help you to navigate your way around creating an emotionally stimulating journey for your child.
Find ways on how to build self esteem in your child on Superprof.
Build Your Child's Self-Esteem Through Activities and Fun
Much to the delight of many parents, the growing infant and toddler shows a spark and a sense of awe when he or she accomplishes something new. From a few months, the baby starts to discover certain abilities like the ability to crawl and eat. Thereafter the toddler starts to walk, run, jump, and eat on his or her own. There is an evident sense of curiosity in these young children who tend to give everything they have to try to perfect something that they have just discovered that they can do.
Unfortunately by the age of 5 when the child starts school, he or she loses that innate curiosity. While the child will still learn new things, he or she will lose that experimental nature that made him or her fun to be around in the first place.
Many science tutors and teachers will tell you that it is up to parents to encourage the child to remain curious and to want to stay on the pathway of self-discovery.
At 5, teach your children how flexible their bodies can be. Get them excited to learn how to move their bodies in all types of ways and in all sorts of situations. The main idea is to get your child curious and wanting to learn more about himself or herself and his or her body.
Many parents start to consider enrolling their children in sport training or other forms of extra mural classes so as to enhance their child's ability to discover what else he or she can be good at.
You might enroll your child in one of the following classes:
- Dance classes
- Martial Arts classes
- Swimming classes
- Yoga or Pilates classes
- Soccer training
- Cricket training
When you are enrolling your child in any of these classes, you are encouraging your child to become more physically fit. A physically fit child is healthier than a couch potato and helping your child to become more physically fit is one way to improve your child's sense of confidence. Perhaps build your child's confidence all the more by going along to all of his or her soccer matches or swimming classes. We are, however, not encouraging soccer mums and dads to be screaming at their child from the stands. We are encouraging parents to be supportive whether their children had a bad match or not.
If you want to get your child to learn something new in a way that you can be more involved, you can choose to take your child to the roller rink for some roller skating. This can be a fun activity that you can do with your child.
If your child doesn't seem to be too sporty or interested in physically demanding activities, you can enroll him or her into:
- horse riding classes
- archery lessons
- chess lessons
- aromatherapy classes
- drama lessons
Improve Self Esteem All Through Your Child's life
While children at the age of 5 lose their innate sense of curiosity, this is the time where their self-awareness usually peaks. You may think that your child has a positive self esteem and there is nothing for you to stress about, however, by the time your child is about 9 years old, self-esteem doubts become more common.
All through their teenage years, children battle with self esteem issues and face self doubt. While your teenage son or daughter will feel less compelled to confess to you what he or she is feeling, it is your duty to push through the built wall and turn negative thoughts to positive thoughts.
You can foster a sense of appreciation in your child by allowing him or her to engage in community service endeavors. Allowing teenagers to understand that there are people who are worst off than they are is surely a stepping stone in the right direction when you want to create children who are more mindful.
You are also making your child more compassionate and sympathetic to the plight of others. Teenagers need to be reminded that their life is not as bad as they may think it to be. As a parent of a teenager, you must encourage your child to love himself or herself despite the bad acne, braces, and being bigger boned than other teenagers.
If your teenager seems to lack self confidence entirely or seems to battling with a negative self esteem, you can surely get your child to speak to a counsellor about this. Even reaching out to a life coach is helpful to ensure your teenager develops a positive sense of self esteem.
If you are still struggling with assisting your teenager to become more positively self aware, let your teen read up on the ways to avoid peer pressure.
Most parents will tell you that having a teenager to deal with is the hardest thing ever!
child Confidence Building Activities and Games on Superprof
How to Build a Child's Self Confidence with Books
Do not underestimate the value of a good self help book. Many mental professionals and experts in the field of emotional awareness, create books that deal with issues of children struggling to overcome difficulties.
You can even encourage reading by getting your child to read a self help book specifically written for children. Some self help books will be written in the form of a narrative.
However, there are also resources available that help children journal their thoughts and feelings. Journaling is an excellent strategy to use to get your child to pen down his or her feelings when he or she seems reluctant to do so himself or herself.
My Story Tribe is a creative tool that encourages self discovery in children and teenagers. Plus these narrative journals are available in English and Afrikaans. From a self-wellness point of view, these journals are perfect.
If you are interested in boosting the self confidence of a younger child, the Doodle a Day book by Chris Riddell works well. There is something to draw, create and colour for everyday of the year and by giving this book to your child, you can help stimulate your child's need to discover new things as well as relieve some stress of the day.
Find out more about using books for building self esteem.
How to Boost a Child's Self-Esteem
While you may be thinking that you will have to attend parenting classes to learn how to boost your child's self esteem, there is no such thing. All children need love and when they are loved, they naturally feel more able to tackle anything.
Positive reinforcement and praise are tips to improve your child's confidence. However, the child must be reminded to not question his or her worth
A child who feels valued and appreciated is less likely to develop too low self esteem and may be more prone to resist peer pressure. Again, as parents you will need to assess every situation. Not all situations require praise and you don't want to reach a point where you are over praising your child.
Aside from complimenting every effort, rather stick to praising accomplishment and success. Any experienced parent will share with you their secrets of child rearing and sometimes it is essential to listen to parents who have been parenting for years.
Again, remember it is the parent that is responsible for making or breaking their child's spirit. But, you must remember that when it comes to parenting,
"No one knows what the hell they are doing. Everyone is just working off their current best guess." Mark Mason
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