As parents we know how important it is for our children to develop the quality of determination. It could be said that it is the difference between success and failure. It is also the difference between them learning to value themselves for what they have earned and not expecting everything to just be given to them.
Here are three points that will help us parent our children to having determination.
- Teach them that little steps on a consistent basis often leads to accomplishment of your goal. Both children and many adults believe that those that are the best at an activity are just natural achievers. The fact is though that with consistent effort that we continue to improve. A great example in our Kindergarten / First Grade classes we ask the children to learn to jump rope. This is a monumental task for that age group. We are working on coordination as well as focus, determination, perseverance. What we have found is that those that will practice jumping rope for 5 minutes a day consistently over a few weeks soon become the best at this task.
- Teach children to deal with obstacles. We can have many different kinds of obstacles blocking us from reaching a goal that we have set out to achieve. But many of them are self inflicted, including the way we talk to ourselves, being a perfectionist, or resisting success with procrastination. Helping our children to learn about obstacles, being able to Know it, Name it and then How to move past it and continue on to success, is part of demonstrating determination.
- Both of the prior steps are best implemented by putting our children into learning environments where determination is a part of the lessons being taught. When this is done in a way that values staying the course and celebrating the results, soon our children will be able to apply this to all different aspects of their life.
All individuals have special gifts or strengths. So if our child is really gifted athletically then something else is going to be more of a test and learning experience for them. If we only practice or play at what we are good at – if we have to win all of the time or if as a parent we do not allow our children to fail, they may never learn this most valuable lesson of determination.