Building Confidence with Self-Esteem Elephant
That feeling when you are proud of yourself! Self-Esteem Elephant made a visit to a preschool and talked about having confidence in yourself and liking just who you are! What a great lesson and reminder to this characters three little powerful words, “I Like ME”. What do you like about yourself? How are you teaching your children to be proud of who they are, what they can do and to encourage them to be who they are?
While I was in the classroom, either teaching preschool or as a Reading Team Assistant, it was very clear to me then and now, that when a child is confident in who they are, and the talents that they have, they have more confidence in daily activities. As an adult, we all know that there are others who are better at things than we are, there are others who encourage one another, there are others who just aren’t sure about themselves. Building confidence in children and adults is vital, especially when we know that we all have talents to share, it’s how we grow, meet others and add value to the world we’re all living in. We could learn so much from children, look at these faces smile! We’re all different on the outside, on the inside, we’re all the same. Let’s bring out the happiness, the talents, the confidence and pride in our children. After all, confidence does not just appear, it grows with each success that we achieve. Even the small ones, they build into the bigger picture.
For example, when your children achieve greatness, coloring in the lines, passing their spelling test, making the team, etc. we praise them, this encourages them and builds confidence, giving them courage and strength to do it again, to try again, to keep moving forward. However, like I mentioned before, it doesn’t just appear. We prepare our children for success or failure. How will you build confidence in your children? Your peers? The Characters of Character mission is to provide a firm foundatin for children to establish strong civic values. Self-Esteem is certainly one of them and a core value that leads to success. Think about society today, there are coaches and mentors who bring out the best in you, it’s in us, it’s in each of us, let’s teach our children to be proud of who they are at an early age and allow them to internalize the trait, to grow into the best version of who they are and to share their confidence with others.
Some Tips to teach confidence and build self-esteem:
Be prepared, if you know there is a test coming up, study for it, if you’re trying out for a team sport or activity, practice ahead of time
Be a role model, when you speak to your children, be confident, use eye contact, greet others in confidence and communicate clearly
Praise your children’s accomplishments, no matter how small they seem to you, they are huge to your child and it encourages them
Failure, even if your child didn’t score the winning goal, they played the game, they stayed focused and they did their best, praise that
When correcting your child, try to start with a positive first, then go into your explanation on how to do better or try harder
Redirect negative talk, reinforce the positive and the good, this builds confidence
Encourage, even the smallest accomplishment, this builds confidence to attempt more difficult tasks and to try again
There is truth to the ol’ cliche, “don’t beat a horse when it’s down”, when the dust has settled it’s easier to communicate with a positive attitude and direction
Please know that these are all just my thoughts and ideas on how to help reinforce and teach children to be confident in who they are. Finding their talents and encouraging them is another. I find so much truth and comfort in the words that Benjamin Franklin said:
“Tell me and I forget, Teach me and I remember, Involve me and I Learn”-Benjamin Franklin
Graphic by Jen Downey-Characters of Character has books available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Books-a-Million to help teach vital core values to children. Resource Book filled with activities and templates here, Let’s Be Proud, here