Building Kids Confidence in 2016

"Probably the greatest single goal of early childhood education should be to build in children a sense of their own worth as persons. The child must learn to feel that he is needed and valued by those about him. This is one of the richest gifts his parents can give." ~Raymond and Dorothy Moore, Better Late Than Early

A child needs a strong sense of belonging and one of the best ways to establish this is to make him feel that he is part of the family team. Let him understand that he has an integral role to play in the home that contributes to the effective functioning of the home.

Let him discover that he can and needs to serve others and that they can trust him and count on him to take care of his responsibilities. He learns, “I can do this.”

At the same time, he must learn that his home is a safe place when he makes mistakes, and that he needs to learn from his failings.

The child who believes he ‘can do’ will be more inclined to try new things, to take risks later in life, to develop a healthy independence and take responsibility for himself. He is likely to try to tackle and overcome problems and persevere through difficulties because he believes that he can overcome!

He will have developed a sense of
1. belonging
2. competency
3. worthiness
...which are regarded as three pillars of a healthy self-esteem.

As 2016 begins, it’s a good time for you to establish some systems in your home or to reassess your children’s responsibilities and tweak them in age-appropriate ways.

To help you do this, my colleague, Wendy Young, has made available on our Footprints website, a free ebook with printable chore cards for different age groups, including preschoolers.

You can pick the ones that your children can do, according to their age and ability and create a TO DO and a DONE pocket on a chart.

Each day your children can read their TO DO cards, do the job and then place the card in the DONE pocket.

Using a system like this helps them to take ownership of their responsibilities and will reduce the amount of nagging and reminding required.

However, remember, your children are just children – children in need of training – and so there will still be times when you have to remind them and call them back to do their work properly. It’s just part of parenting and it will develop, in your character, traits such as patience, perseverance and long-suffering.

I always say, “Nobody just has huge amounts of patience, we DEVELOP it because we need it!”

Here is the link where you will find the pdf download: Free Printable Chore Charts

Developmental Activities

Gross motor skills

Play ball games with your child using a small ball like a tennis ball. Show her how to toss the ball back and forth between her two hands quickly like a juggler would do. Let her bounce the ball up and down to the ground using the palm of her hand. Do the exercise with both hands. Play any other ball games you choose, rolling, throwing, catching or kicking the ball, but stop when your child loses interest or concentration.

Fine motor skills

Let your child hold a small ball with the fingertips of both hands. Show her how to spin the ball forwards with her fingertips. Repeat spinning the ball backwards.

Visual perception

Using plastic shapes from a toy shape set or cut from paper, place five different shapes in front of your child. Discuss and name the shapes with her. Ask her to look away while you remove one and replace it with a different shape. You child must try to determine which shape has bee replaced. Replace more than one shape at a time as she improves at the game.

Auditory perception

Let your child stand with her back to you. Clap your hands and ask her how many times you clapped. Repeat clapping once, twice, three, four and five times at random.

Language and thinking

Teach your child some short nursery rhymes. Recite them together until your child knows them by heart. Although you will find plenty of nursery rhymes at the above link on Shirley's Preschool Activities, I still recommend that you rather buy a nicely illustrated book of nursery rhymes that you can enjoy together. Put it on a wishlist for your child's birthday or ask the grandparents to buy it!

Faith building

By now your habit of reading a Bible story each day should be established. If you don’t already, then ask your child to pray to the Lord as you lead her in a short prayer. Remember she may easily be distracted, which is why it is a good idea to close eyes and put hands together or hold each other’s hands to keep them from fidgeting!

Till next time...

Regards
Shirley

Crashproof your homeschooling by getting the answers you need to start well, to handle your worries and doubts and to build your confidence. Shirley offers her experience as a veteran homeschool mother, author and consultant via online webinars to help you avoid the common traps that befall so many new homeschoolers.
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