Building Confidence in Kids

I think it's safe to say that we'd all love for our children to grow up being confident in themselves and in their abilities to succeed and make a positive difference in this world.  A great way to do this is to provide opportunities for them to explore a variety of subjects and activities so that they can find skills they want to develop. Confidence in part comes from competence and skill development. Working hard on something and seeing the finished result feels so good! Our children will thrive as they see themselves learning, growing, and achieving! There are so many wonderful skills out there children can learn: cooking, sewing, building, painting, playing an instrument, singing, fishing, working on sports like making 50 free throws a day for a week or jogging a marathon in a month, etc. Serving others is a great skill to develop. When my kids make cookies for someone, send grandparents cards, or write kindness notes to put in mailboxes, they feel so great and accomplished.

So, if your kids are bored this summer with most pools being closed down, encourage them to develop a new skill. If they resist, come up with a compromise... they develop a skill and then later they can watch a movie or play a video game. Another idea is to have a family meeting and have everyone think of a skill they want to learn or develop and plan a time each day for everyone (parents included unless they need to help kids) to work on their skill. Then on Friday night, everyone show off what they learned and celebrate with a special family dinner, pizza movie night, going out for ice cream, etc. Whatever floats their boat!