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Fall 2007
Volume 4, Number 3 |
Confidence Builders for Children
How do you build
your child’s self-esteem? I’ve used this idea with my grandson and
hope it will help you.
I tell him
“Always leave on a good note.”
The easiest way to show you how we use it might be a sports analogy,
but the concept can be used any time you want to help your child
succeed.
If my grandson Kyle and I have been shooting baskets and it’s time
to leave, I will say, “One more basket and then we have to go.” Then
I add, “Always leave on a good note.” He knows we will stay until he
makes that last all-important basket. Why is that last shot so
important? Because it is the one he will remember.
He knows that by making the last shot he has been successful on the
basketball court and that he has “left it on a good note.” Kyle
loves it. He leaves the basketball court as a successful shot maker.
That success is his memory of shooting baskets with his
grandfather.
We use that same confidence building concept in other areas.
For example, if he is having problems with a particular night’s math
homework, we will “always leave it on a good note.” In this case,
after he has successfully completed one of the math problems we
might stop for a 5 to 10 minute break. I’ll let him do something
else for the short break and then we will finish the night’s math
homework. It is amazing how that successful completion of a math
problem and a short break refocuses his attitude for the
balance of the homework assignment.
Try the “always
leave on a good note” concept. Before long your children will be
using the expression themselves, and without fully understanding
what is happening, they will be building on their personal success,
one successfully completed event after another.
Ideas for Implementation:
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It is vitally
important to be patient with your child. In the beginning it
took Kyle 5 minutes to make that last basket, but he never felt
rushed.
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Use the “Always
leave it on a good note” statement often, so your child starts
to think in those terms.
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Congratulate
your child on a job well done.
Reprinted with
permission from
www.teachingmoments.com
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