Parents Taking Charge in Education Blog: Parents- Helping Your Children Achieve Outside the Classroom by Mrs. Dorothy Barron

Parents- Helping Your Children Achieve Outside the Classroom by Mrs. Dorothy Barron

Parents, there are a number of things you can do to assist your child or children with building self-esteem and confidence while teaching them to become more responsible.

Some of you would be pleasantly surprised at your child’s efficiency and proficiency when provided with certain opportunities and encouragement that challenge and test their skills and abilities of which you, the parent can provide outside the classroom.

The key is exposing your child to various experiences which allows him/her to find, develop, accomplish and achieve certain goals. There are a number of ways to accomplish such and may consist of activities in which your child is presently engaged.

Ÿ  Volunteerism - many children engage in this worthwhile endeavor. They may assist a neighbor, relative, church member, some organized entity or stranger on a regular basis. One way to expand this activity and give your child a sense of his/her importance and this important endeavor is to allow him/her to keep records - compute time, dates and hours, type of services rendered. Even though the child does not receive payment, have him/her assign a monetary value to each performed service.

Ÿ  Chores: assigning chores on a regular basis is necessary to assist the child with becoming responsible. If your child monopolizes the computer, utilize it as a teaching and chore tool. Examples: If, on a budget, assign the child the duty of locating food coupons each week and/or recipes to assist you or them with planning quick and easy menus/meals. Assign your child or children the chore of planning an excursion, whether it’s one day or the family vacation (try and limit your intervention by providing only the general and necessary guidelines such as the budget, number of days, dates).

Ÿ  Jobs- Introduce your child early to entrepreneurship and business skills. Your child may offer such services as babysitting, lawn care, or assistance to the elderly, etc. As baby boomers age, more assistance and services will be needed to accommodate them. Volunteerism to the elderly at some point may lead to you granting your child permission to provide services for hire to assist seniors or your child babysitting the young and advancing to sitting with the elderly. More seniors are opting to remain in their homes; some may not be able to afford a professional lawn care service, but with your permission, may be willing to hire your son/daughter to care for his/her yard. Your child’s earning of money can present a great opportunity for him/her to learn about budgeting, expenditures, spending and saving money.

During my experience in working with young people, I have found that most give you pretty much what you expect. Whatever activities or goals your child endeavors to accomplish, you, the parent want to ensure that they do their very best. Also, thank you, please and I am very proud of you are words that the young, as well as not so young enjoy hearing. Parents, do not underestimate the long term effects of positive endeavors and experiences of which you provide and expose your children to outside the classroom on today; they can and will definitely assist them in the future.

Mrs. Dorothy Barron, Author

E-mail: barron.dorothy@yahoo.com

Parents Taking Charge in Education at http://mrsdbarron.blogspot.com