Life Skills: Teamwork Teaches Children To Think About The Needs of Others
In our society even our youngest of children end up on teams involving sports or other activity. Too often the question we ask is, “How did you do?” or we say, “You did really well today!” If we want to teach our children about teamwork though we may want to change the words we use, and start very early teaching them about teams and how we can accomplish much bigger goals together than we can as just one person.
All of us including children have been on teams. Our most important team is our family. When we teach our children that the family is the most important team we are on, we will be helping them to see things from others point of view, empathy. When they go to school they will start to see relationships as not just about themselves, but also get to feel what others might be feeling. When we take them into the community and there are cleanup projects or feeding the less fortunate, they will begin to understand how together we can make a difference far beyond what we can do as individuals.
What would happen if at home we all made a mess? Do we expect that one person would be responsible for picking up and cleaning the mess? If we as a family work together to get things cleaned up, we are teaching our children that teamwork is an important characteristic to our family. Yes sometimes it takes more time than doing it ourselves, but the lesson of teamwork, empathy, fairness and learning how to share responsibility is a valuable lesson for later in life.
Life Skills: Teamwork Discussions Will Focus on Family and Schools
Our children, just like ourselves, find that we are on a variety of teams. It may be a school, sports, service project, or for adults we may be on multiple teams at work. Whenever we find that we are with a group of people trying to achieve a common goal, it requires that we have teamwork.
While all of these outside activities are important to demonstrate the qualities of good teamwork, our inner circle of our family is the most important. In fact it is here in the family that we first lay the groundwork for teamwork, and this is where we should have our foundation and strongest ties.
Teaching the quality of teamwork to our children with our example and words have a far reaching affect on their relationships later when they get in school and have to deal with social issues and behaviors of classmates, teachers and teams that they may be taking part in. During this month we will look at what it means to be a teammate, why some teams are successful and others not, how we can contribute to teams we are on and how and why we should speak up as an individual on a team.
Finally I will be tying all of this in to how teaching teamwork to our children has an affect on bullying in school. Follow us here or come in to the school and enjoy taking classes with our team of dedicated instructors.
Life Skills: Meeting the Challenges of Perseverance, Getting Through the Roadblocks
New Years is a time of the year when many individuals set out on goal setting, yet only 8% of them say that they always keep their resolution, while 75 percent say that they never complete their goal or resolution. So what happens? What is it that stops people from reaching their goals?
Four major challenges or potential roadblocks are:
- Fear of failure
- Lack of determination
- Peer pressure
- Excuses, excuses.
The fear of failure is one of the largest one’s that affect young and older individuals. But here is an idea the next time you start to give up on a goal because you are concerned about what might happen if it does not work out for you. Make a list of what the worst outcome would be if you failed and beside it a list of what the best outcomes would be. Now weigh it out and see if the worst is so bad that you are willing to give up the idea of trying and the possibility of success. Continue reading “Life Skills: Meeting the Challenges of Perseverance, Getting Through the Roadblocks”
Jessica W. pre-school training earns her a Tiger Tot Black Belt
She comes regular to class and has mastered the front kick and some blocking. In addition she has learned the meaning to many words like integrity, respect, teamwork and more. She is ready for Kindergarten and the 5/6 class at Balanced Life Skills.
Life Skills: Integrity – Be Prepared to Make Good Decisions
If we are going to stand up to our friends, that is resist peer pressure to do things that are against our own morals, values and ethics, we must be prepared. This type of preparation is no different than being prepared for a physical attack on ourselves. As a martial arts student and practitioner we know what we would do if someone were to try to push us, or if someone called us a name, we know how we would react – because we have practiced those things.
The same is true with peer pressure. We must prepare to defend who we are and what we stand for, so if we are asked to do something we are not comfortable with, we will have the strength to say NO.
So what would you do if you were put in a high pressure situation? Preparing ahead, knowing what we would say and practicing that answer is part of the key to having the courage to actually do it when that time comes – and it will come. What type of questions should you be prepared for?
What would you do if you were pressured to cheat or lie for one of your friends?
What would you do if you were being pressured to smoke, drink, or take drugs?
What would you do if your friends were bullying someone in your class or school?
What would you do if someone asked you to text you a picture of yourself?
Knowing the answer ahead of time, practicing it in your head, discussing it with your parents are all ways of being prepared to keep your integrity to yourself.