Giving Your Child a Growth Mindset | Part 2
GIVING YOUR CHILD A GROWTH MINDSET (PART 2)
Children are not built to live with a crippling pressure to succeed and be the best at everything!
Boys and girls flourish when they have the healthy mindset of valuing learning and enjoying new experiences, understanding that a growth mindset believes abilities can be developed. The common “fixed mindset” believes that abilities are fixed, with no hope of developing abilities (read “Mindset”, by Carol S. Dwell, PhD)
Part I of this blog gave us 2 ways to equip our kids in this area. Here are a couple more:
3. ENCOURAGING AN APPETITE TO LEARN AND GROW. Honestly, I think when kids see their parents excited about learning new things, whether a craft, language, sport, music instrument or any kind of discipline, they see firsthand the joy (and possibly early frustrations ) of learning something they have never tried before.
There are so many great true stories of people succeeding against great odds because they were determined. Whether telling your own experiences, or others’, our family dialogue can help develop an appetite in our children to grow, as well as, “normalizing” the struggles of learning anything new in life.
4. LISTENING TO OUR CHILDREN’S THOUGHTS AND EVEN FEARS. Nothing takes the place of letting your kids tell you how they feel, and what they are thinking. It’s so easy be caught up into “telling them how they should feel”! I had to learn this lesson (and I’m still learning!). As parents, we need to be experts at listening, not only to their words, but to their hearts.
Asking simple questions help a child open up, especially when there is no hurry or pressure.
The bottom line is this: a growth mindset is one of the key advantages we can give our children. It sets them on a healthy, successful path to becoming all they were created to be! And isn’t that the joy of parenting?
Recap:
REWARD EFFORT
MAKE IT CLEAR THAT NO ONE IS GOOD AT EVERYTHING,BUT EVERYONE CAN BE GOOD AT SOMETHING
ENCOURAGE AN APPETITE TO LEARN & GROW
4. LISTEN TO OUR CHILDREN’S THOUGHTS & FEARS
BE ENCOURAGED! Parenting is a lifestyle, a process, and a challenge! We never stop coaching, encouraging, mentoring, training, illustrating, demonstrating or just listening. It’s 24/7 and it’s wonderful!
Our kids need us to believe in them! We need to relax and understand each of our children will have their own, unique story.
I hope these words have focused all of on the importance of how each of our kids THINK!. And may we all choose the adventure of having a GROWTH MINDSET!❤️
Never Give Up!
DeAnza Duron