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Life Skills: Answer the Question Why to Teach Children To Persevere

Teaching character and life skills to students

The R in SPARK stands for REASON.  If we are going to persevere to reach a goal knowing why we want to do something gives us a great deal of push to accomplish that goal.  Part of goal setting should always include the answer to WHY.  Any goal worth reaching must move us in a way that we feel that it wouldn’t just be a nice thing to have happen – but rather – we must.

For an example if someone wanted to lose weight.  Answer the question WHY first.  What will losing this 15 pounds do for me, save me from, or affect my life?  How will my children be affected?  How will I feel?  What will I be able to do that is hard for me now?  Why is this important?

Getting the reason firmly planted in our mind and heart will keep us going when the hard days come and it is difficult to stay on our path to our goal.  Asking ourselves the right questions will move us to continue taking action.

In the next month I will be writing about the questions we need to ask ourselves to be sure we stay on the path to reach our goals.

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Life Skills: Teaching Children Perseverance by Demonstrating Support

Teaching character and life skills to students

Teaching our child to persevere in any activity calls for S.P.A.R.K. We have talked to our students about the how this works, but here are some thoughts that we can look at from a parents point of view.  The S in SPARK stands for SUPPORT.

Our showing of support for our children gives them permission to be creative and affirmation of a parents interest in their activities.  Supporting them in word and action motivates the child to give extra and to do their best.  In a time when we find ourselves running from one ‘activity’ to another, we must remember to take our time to have an interest in the child’s progress and encourage the effort that they are putting into their goal.  On the other side, not over emphasizing the belt, trophy or winning will allow the child to have failures and still feel like a success for the effort.  As in everything effort will pay off with reaching goals when we persevere and have support from others.