Tag: children

Parenting is a thankless job. You might toil away hours of training, worrying, and go through all the stages of elation, wonder, and sadness. As parents we want the best for our kids, whether it’s giving them a head start with their education or buying the best clothes or making sure they eat healthily.

In the end, we just want our children to be happy, independent, and have a kind heart and soul. But besides teaching them important skills such as how to hold a fork or how to say thank you and please, we must also set great examples for our children. Our kids will inevitably learn from what they see and hear. If we model important, beneficial behaviors at home and outside the home, then we are teaching our children crucial first steps.

The new school year is starting soon and whether you are a parent who already has their act together, or a parent still scrambling to register their kids at school, know that we all face dilemmas before the first day of school. However, we can prepare ourselves and our children to have a successful, fun, and enlightened school year.

Before the start of the new school year, there are some important skills children should learn and practice. Certain skills teach kids to be independent thinkers and to learn the difference between right and wrong.

10 IMPORTANT SKILLS CHILDREN MUST LEARN BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS:

Collaboration Skills

One of the skills young children learn at school is how to get along with others. While that’s mostly taught at home in their early years, learning to collaborate, share, and getting along with other students is crucial to having a successful school year. Aside from developmental barriers, most students need to learn this important social skill while in school. If you feel you have a difficult time helping your child learn to collaborate with others, seek professional help before school starts or access the school district’s intervention programs, such as an IEP (Individualized Education Program), or something similar that’s offered.

Compassion

One of the most important facets of being a human being is feeling and expressing compassion. Compassion or empathy is an innate ability and most people are born with this character trait. For some it can come naturally, for others it must be taught and then nurtured. Developing compassionate skills require work for others, but it’s not impossible. Start by watching TV programs at home that fosters compassion and kindness. While outside of the home at a park or a grocery store, show your kids compassion by letting others go before you in line, or letting another child go down the slide first. Compassionate kids lead to a kinder world for everyone.

Respect Nature

Nature surrounds us in our everyday lives. When we are talking about nature, we are referring to the environment that includes animals, plants, and the ocean. It’s easy to pick up a pet at a pet store or an animal rescue. But teach and show your children that pets are not toys. Pets are living, breathing, little animals that rely on us to help them live happy and healthy lives…much like our own children. Same thing will be said for the plants we grow in our homes or see outdoors. The trees, flowers, even the vegetables we grow rely on human compassion and collaboration. And when it comes to the ocean or sea, we must teach our children to be respectful of the living things inside the sea. When we can respect nature, we can respect the environment at school and on school campuses.

Resourcefulness

I joke with my son that “back in the days” people had to be super resourceful. One couldn’t just easily go to the market and get a dozen eggs or drive down to the ice cream shop two cities away. While most people learn to become resourceful based on their own experiences, sometimes we have to teach our children this important life skill. Asks your kids what they would do if they couldn’t have their favorite foods all the time, or not understanding a certain subject at school. What would they do? Who could they turn to for help? And how do they use what they have learned? Teach your children your own ways of being resourceful by showing them various choices they can make and the outcome of those choices.

Consequences

One of the lessons I like to reiterate with the students at school is the consequences of our actions. A consequence can be good or bad, negative or positive. A consequence is the direct result of our action, whether it’s immediate or years down the line. Teach your children this important lesson before they start school. When children make bad choices and don’t learn to face their consequences, they may end up repeating these bad choices which will inevitably hurt not only others but themselves.

Conservative

Being conservative isn’t necessarily a hindrance. In fact, when we learn to reduce our usages and consume less, we are learning to be more resourceful. We live in a world of buy, buy, buy. The convenience of getting something online any time or day is an easy pitfall to get trapped in. When we teach our children to conserve our wants and needs that aren’t crucial to a healthy lifestyle, we are teaching them to reduce the need for wanting things they don’t truly need. During their school years, you will most likely buy endless supplies of lined paper, tissue boxes, pencils, and anything else the school or teachers require. But easy ways to conserve would be to reuse what you already have especially if the items aren’t damaged or broken.

Be Kind to our Planet

Whether your kids are young or older, we won’t always be there for them when they’re fully grown. Teaching your children to be kind to our planet helps them learn valuable lessons about taking care of their future. Climate change has affected everyone around the world. It might be a slow moving situation, but teaching our children to be more mindful of the environment can help prevent further damage to our planet. If you’re not already conserving energy by reducing plastic waste and consumption, then now is a great time to start with your family. Kids have the innate ability to want to be helpful. Give them opportunities to help the environment by using less plastic at home and at school, by reusing what you already have, and by walking to school with them or with a group of friends.

Independence 

The freedom to make our own choices can be quite enlightening. But just because we can choose our own path doesn’t always mean we know how to do it properly. When children are young, we are apt to keep eagle eyes on them, never letting them out of our sight for even a minute. While younger children benefit from the extra care and diligence of watchful parents, the older they become, the more they should learn to make their own choices. Independence breathes lives into making better choices down the road, and help us learn about the positive and negative consequences that might arise. When children are at school, they are mostly independent of their parents and rely on their teachers and school staff. But their teachers have to watch 30 or more children and can’t always keep your kids in check. Teaching your children to be independent thinkers give them chances to make great life choices.

Having their own Power

When our kids our younger, we tend to speak for our children or do things for them that they can do themselves. It’s the natural process of parenting because as they say, children don’t come with a handbook. Well, unless you count the ever popular “What to Expect” books. Parents are learning and navigating through the tricky current of parenting just as our kids are going through their own personal journeys. But kids also need to have their own power, their own voices. When they’re at school, they’re traversing through the tumultuous paths of friendship and not really knowing how to make and keep friends. By giving your children the power to have their own thoughts and voices, they can learn to speak up for themselves, defend their honor or the honor of others, and not be afraid to walk away from bad friendships.

Self-discovery

Wouldn’t it be awesome if we can all look into our future selves to avoid mistakes and hurtful people? We would wish that for our children too, if only to prevent them from getting hurt or damaged. Self-discovery is a journey to one’s own insight. We can all benefit from learning from our mistakes, learning from our past aggressions, and learning to make better choices. Teach your children to think before they might say something mean to another student or follow school bullies because they think they’re “cool”. Discovering one’s true self might take many, many years, and we are all still going through our own paths. But teaching our children to be their one self will greatly benefit them in their future.

Best of luck to your students starting school!!!

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