How to Raise Confident, Curious and Creative Kids
Matt’s note: This is really nice article with helpful points. I especially like #6 about allowing mistakes. Too many children lack confidence because they are afraid to fail. As parents, in our pursuit to protect kids from every danger, we often stifle their creativity and limit their confidence by either making them afraid to experiment and fail or doing everything for them. Remember the Magic School Bus series? “Take chances. Make mistakes. Get messy.” That’s some of the best advice we can give our children.
By Siny Sebastian
How to raise kids to be creative, curious and confident
What do you wish the most for your kids? Is it a life of happiness in which they enjoy each moment by considering their life as an adventure? Or is it a life where they are able to live their life bravely by thinking creatively in their daily life? Whatever be the dreams we have for our kids, imagination, creativity, curiosity and confidence in children do play an important role in realizing these dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt, the famous American Diplomat once said “I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity”. Do you think that you would ever wish for such a gift for your kid? I surely did wish for that since I pinned for such a fairy dream for long 9 months. But then later as my kids grew, I realized the truth that it doesn’t have to be a dream. It is indeed possible to raise our kids to be creative, curious and confident if we parents have the basic understanding and knowledge to quest their creativity. On top, it is not such a hard process.
Wondering why? This is because kids are born curious. All that we need to do is to encourage them in their exploratory expeditions. Children have an inborn quality to absorb information easily and so when we build up their sense of adventure, it will motivate the kids to go out of their way in learning and understanding new things. The more things they find for themselves, the more easily it is for them to come up with creative ideas. Believe it or not, all these are not something that is easy not only on paper, but also in reality as they are several simple things that we can do to foster their curiosity.
Creative thinking is important for children as it develops intrinsic motivation in children. This in turn helps them to love the process of learning throughout their life. What’s more, curiosity and creativity are related to optimal well-being as it is seen that those who love learning new things and are always curious are more happy and optimistic than those who are not. All this gives them a sense of self- confidence that makes them push themselves more to follow their dreams, irrespective of all the barriers that they face in life. Don’t we all want our children to chase their dreams?
For all this to happen, the foremost thing needed is for the parents to be equipped. Parents have a great influence on what their child thinks and learns in the early years. Parents are the first role models that the kids look up to. Parents should help them in making the kids understand how to think, but then never teach them what to think as it will hinder their creativity and curiosity.
Now, it is time for the tips which will help us to raise confident, curious and creative kids. Some of these are:
1) Encouraging Curiosity – Asking questions to children is a great way to enhance their curiosity. It will not be a one sided as you already guessed since it is a common knowledge that kids are experts in asking questions. This two- way process is one of the best and easiest ways to boost their curiosity. It motivates the kids to find answers for themselves and promotes their independence. Always try to stretch their knowledge.
2) Communication – Communicate with the kids those matters which will make them think. This gives them a chance or ability to build their own opinions. When this kind of communication happens, you will able to further their curiosity as well as increase their confidence. Children become more observant and perceptive about their environment. Besides, it helps the parents to understand what all the kids are really interested in.
3) Open Atmosphere – This is an essential prerequisite since the kids are able to express the ideas freely only in such an environment where there isn’t much inhibitions. When children seek out new experiments and new ideas, they are able to increase their critical thinking and their ability to solve problems.
4) Adequate Resources – When we provide adequate resources for unstructured and unrestricted child directed activities with right guidance, we are providing them enough space for ample growth of creative expressions. It isn’t hard since we can use our own common experiences rather than buying the kids with expensive and fancy materials.
5) Building Confidence – If we really want our kids to be confident then the kids should be made to look at things in different perspectives and ways and then make the kids believe in them by we believing in them. This in turn would help to support the child’s interests.
6) Allowing Mistakes – It is very much possible that there would be lots of mistakes in this interesting process. The important thing to note here is that the mistakes made by the kids should be considered as opportunities and not as unsuccessful attempts. Only when we allow the kids to make mistakes will they not be afraid of failures and be confident kids. If the kids are scared of failures, then there is lesser chance of them trying new things.
7) Timely Appreciation – Show and demonstrate genuine interest and appreciation of what they are doing – Most of the time, the kids are able to understand when we fake these feelings. Be with them when you have the time, since that motivates the children most.
Through these ways, we will be able to shape an environment for the kids where they are full of curiosity and be full of confidence in both themselves and in the world around them.
Parents also wish that their kids are confident, curious and creative! So here come, some simple tips that enable us to do that!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Siny_Sebastian
You are the person you deserve to be because of the effort you put into creating yourself. Your beliefs determine your thoughts, which determine your actions, which create the results you have today. Let’s do a simple mindset check. Take a look at the last 10 posts you put on social media. Assign an emotion or description to each one. Now count how many were happy, celebratory, angry, loving, punishing, educational, spiritual, revengeful, or just plain negative. Take a good look at the difference between the positive and negative posts. This may give you an indication of your general mindset.
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