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Preparing your child to succeed in life begins with childhood education. But it’s also important that you help them be flexible. New technologies and changing teachers and classmates requires resilience. Here are some ways to help your kids adapt.
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Teach Them to Accept Change
Don’t count on school teachers to full educate and prepare your child. The federal government provides 10.8 percent of funding, but that’s apportioned by category. Teachers have many students and many pressures. Accept that you are your child’s first and most important teacher. How you adapt to changes and challenges sets a precedent, whether either of you realize it or not. Make it a point to look on your own problems with optimism. Help your child deal in a positive light with their own changes, whether it’s a lost dog or the first day of school.
Encourage Teamwork
One of the major social skills you can teach children for doing well in school and in life is to work well as part of a team. Help them to express themselves well and assert their opinions in a calm, informed way. Teach them about the importance of cooperation, compromise, mutual support, and open discussion where everyone has an equal voice toward the common good.
Be Future-Oriented
It’s never too early to talk about career plans. Those are most likely to change over time, but it’s good for their self-confidence and creativity that you talk about and support their current interests and respect their choices. Hopefully, by the time they’re well into high school, they may be ready to focus on educational requirements.
College and Career
A college education is important to many higher-paying and more satisfying job roles. In the final years of high school, encourage kids to study for their SATs and earn college-level credits where possible. By this time they should have some idea of what they want to do, for example healthcare. Let them explain their goals, and encourage focus on educational paths. Whether your child wants to grow up earning a nursing master’s degree or a degree in engineering, education is invaluable and will help them develop skills that will help them succeed in their career, in addition to knowledge and expertise.
Teach Problem-Solving
The ability to handle complex issues in a logical, structured way is important to gaining knowledge in any discipline. From helping them with their homework to offering them puzzles and challenges of their own, encourage kids to think things through and remain calm. Remind them of past successes. You might reward them for their triumphs. Urge them to look at things in a different way and to be creative in their solutions. Every child needs basic life-skills that should be taught while they’re still in school. The capacity to assess the various options they encounter will be important to adapting to change.