How to Help your Children Flourish at School
All parents want their children to have the best education. For this purpose, they strive to make sure the curriculum in the school is up to the mark, that their children are participating in all the activities, that the teachers and instructors are using the most modern methods of teaching and that the children are being inspired and motivated every day.
The parents then move the focus on themselves and how they can find the perfect balance between being supportive and not being a dominating parent, and of course how they can manage time and finances to provide the best for their children.
As important as all these things are, psychology believes that it should all begin with the child, and they should be the real focus in the entire equation. Children will only flourish in school when they are comfortable, relaxed and safe in their surroundings. And we as parents have the power to do just that.
Before we move on to some tried and tested parenting tips to make your children flourish at school, let’s first understand what flourishing really means:
What Do You Mean by Flourishing?
The word is surrounded by myths and so it is very important for parents to understand what it really means for their children to flourish at school. It is not how much your child is liked by the teachers and it is most definitely not about high grades, it does not even mean a gifted child with extraordinary abilities.
If your child is showing the following characteristics, then that means they are flourishing at school:
• They are happy and joyful
• Curious and eager to learn without feeling stressed
• Connected with their peers and empathetic
• Creative and imaginative
• Confident
• Good team players
• Resilient and positive
• Love themselves
As long as your child shows the above traits, they’ll end up doing extremely well in school.
And here’s what you as a parent can help them grow up to be kids with these characteristics
Tips for Parents to Help Their Children Flourish at School:
Take Care of Their Emotional Health
The feeling and emotional state of your child must always take priority. Every kind of hardships and challenges can be overcome by children as long as their emotional well being is treated like it matters.
As a parent, value your children’s feelings, and always make them feel safe and secure. Use your parental instincts to make sure that they are not unhappy, worried, or preoccupied with something.
Also, maintain a relationship with your children that keep an open communication. Some of your children would be forthcoming; others would be quiet and sensitive. Make sure everyone can easily open up to you. Only when the children are emotionally healthy, will they be able to do exceptionally well at school.
Focus on their Strengths
They are your children, but they are their own person and they are born with their own sets of strengths and weaknesses. Let go of the weakness and focus on their strengths. Try to figure out what is it that your child is exceptionally good at and help them develop their skills.
This way, your child will feel competent from an early age in life and will learn to manage some aspects of their life. They’ll be eager to participate in school where they think their ability will shine.
Also, once you discover their strength challenge them with new things, children easily get frustrated with things they can’t do, and the mild frustration often serves as an excellent motivation.
Make Learning Fun
Academics should not be the most important thing in your children’s life, but it still should be important. Some children are naturally good at studies, other find it hard but only because they cannot focus.
Make sure you make learning a fun thing at home for them. Play games, teach them math tricks, and in general create a good mood so that they are engaged and more creative in their studies.
Educate Them about Failure
Failure is a stepping-stone yet not even most adults can wrap their head around it, make sure your children know that failure does not guarantee the end of things. It means more learning opportunities. Don’t make a big deal out of their failure and they won’t either but make sure to turn every failure into a learning opportunity.
Things like, it didn’t work last time, let’s try something else, or you did well, now you need a little more practice to become perfect at it.
Little fear of fear will make your children daring and resilient, a trait that goes a long way even as adults and sets the path towards success. When your children are not scared of failure, they’d keep showing up for things they love at school and go to school every day with the goal of giving their best shot.
Develop their Relationship skills
Children who have excellent relationship skills are good team players and are in general loved and liked by everyone. This sense of being everyone’s favorite does wonders for their self-esteem and confidence.
It’s essential for your children to easily be able to make friends at school but with friendships based on quality rather than quantity. Children who are too social also end up getting distracted from studies. Other than friends, your child must develop the skills to be in a strong and positive relationship with all his peers.
Talk to Their Teacher
No one understands their children better than the parents themselves, and if you feel like your child is sensitive then make sure you communicate with the Teacher. Sensitive children need a very supportive and trusted environment to flourish and thrive and so it is the parents’ responsibility to inform the teachers.
If a child says to the teacher that he is tired,that doesn’t necessarily mean he is rebelling or tired in the literal sense, it just shows that they are asking for a time-out and the stress is getting to them.
Remember, that if your child is doing well at school then it reflects back to you as a parent. This is an opportunity for you to praise your parenting methods and help your child flourish!
© Teresa Boardman, Nanny Options.
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