We often hear parents lamenting that their children aren’t smart or confident. You could easily notice their displeasure, worry, and concern. But all that will be a thing of the past because if you follow these strategies I will discuss here, you will be able to raise a smart and confident child.
The fact is that every parent wants their child to be smart and confident, but it can’t happen based on mere wishes. If you want your child to be smart and confident, you must put in the work.
Some strategies can help you raise a smart and confident child if you apply them correctly.
This article covers those strategies in detail. The strategies are grouped into strategies that make your child smart and strategies that make your child confident. Continue reading to get empowered to raise a courageous child.
Strategies that Make Your Child Smart
Below are the strategies that, when applied, can make your child smart.
Don’t Always Solve Their Problems
Children learn better when they do things themselves. As a parent, you may feel the urge to help them solve their problems but don’t always do that. It is beneficial to allow your child to take the driver’s seat sometimes.
When they have a problem and you know they can solve it, allow them to try solving it. The only way to develop proficient problem-solving skills is by solving real-life problems.
Most times what your child needs is support. You should guide and support them while they solve their problems. It makes the child smarter as they learn how to approach problems and become comfortable solving them.
Expose Them to Diverse Views
One of the things that can make a child less smart is a lack of exposure to diverse views and individuals. When a child interact with people from different walks of life, learn different things, and listen to different perspectives on a topic or more, they become smarter.
Interacting with different people helps a child to develop empathy, understanding, and critical thinking. They learn to communicate and build relationships.
You can encourage them by inviting them to join your conversations when suitable. Also, teach them to always ask for permission before joining a conversation, so they won’t intrude.
Get the Right Toys for Your Child
Toys are beautiful but are additionally instrumental in raising a smart child. Toys keep kids engaged and can take up a significant portion of their time; therefore, you want them to be productive while playing with the toys.
Be intentional when getting toys for your child; go for toys such as Legos, puzzles, etc.
Also, to encourage more interactions with the toys, reduce screen time as much as you can. Your child should watch their favourite shows but keep that time to the bare minimum.
Playing with the right toys forces them to think out solutions to the challenges they encounter, thereby making them smart.
Nurture Their Interest
Every child is unique and has special interests. Don’t assume as a parent that because they are your kids, they are the same.
There are always a couple of things that interest that child that others may not find valuable. Your job as a parent is to nurture that interest. Guide and support them as they explore them.
Sometimes parents judge the interests of their children based on their sentimental desires. For example, they may desire for their child to be a programmer, but the child is only showing interest in the arts. Therefore the parent, instead of helping them to sharpen their interest, tries to discourage them from it in a bid to get them to turn out as they desire.
Kids become smart when they engage in what they enjoy; therefore, encourage your child to pursue their interests. Don’t be the judge who decides what should be for them when they have clearly shown what interests them. Enroll them in the necessary classes and boot camps and possibly find them a mentor.
Also Read: When Should You Teach Your Child About Sex and At What Age?
Strategies that Make Your Child Confident
Applying the strategies in this section will boost your child’s confidence. These strategies help them cultivate a positive self-image and faith in themselves.
Encourage Self-expression
Many parents suppress their kids when they try to express themselves. That is a wonderful recipe for raising a timid and naive child. Some of us think suppressing them would make our kids respectful and humble, but we are only damaging their self-esteem.
Encourage your child to be expressive. Always allow them to speak and express themselves. As a parent, your primary assignment is to guide your child, not shut them down.
Actively listen to them and show genuine interest in their lives. Provide opportunities for creative expression such as music lessons, painting classes, and book reading and writing clubs.
Let your child know that it is normal and necessary that they express themselves once the opportunity presents itself.
Provide Opportunities for Success
Success helps build our confidence. A long streak of failure weakens our confidence. You need to provide opportunities for your child to experience success.
You can provide opportunities by encouraging your child to try new things. Explain to them that your chances of being a success increase when you don’t stop trying new things. Expose them to different choices and allow them to make their own decisions. Allowing your child to own their decision helps to build their confidence because they learn to take charge and make decisions.
Also, don’t forget to celebrate their wins no matter how little; it boosts their faith in themselves. When they make mistakes, offer constructive and healthy criticism that helps them improve and become better.
Offer Unconditional Love and Acceptance
Just as adults desire to be loved and accepted unconditionally, kids desire the same, and it is very important for the development of healthy confidence.
When you show your child that they are loved and accepted regardless of their strengths, weaknesses, flaws, etc., you create a healthy environment for their development.
Children need to experience love and acceptance. As a parent, some of the ways you can show unconditional love and acceptance are by providing physical touch and attention, supporting and nurturing their interests, providing positive criticism and encouragement, and spending quality time with them.
If you love and accept your child unconditionally, you help them develop confidence and a healthy self-image.
Build a Growth Mindset in Them
We will easily give up when we encounter challenges or experience failure if we don’t possess a growth mindset. Help your child build a growth mindset by making them see failure as a part of life and growth.
They should understand that failure means that you are making an attempt, and that alone is progress. Teach them to not get demoralized by mistakes or failures but to find out what they can learn from them to become better.
A growth mindset strengthens your child’s grit and confidence. Provide opportunities for them to take risks and try new things. Focus on steady improvement and not perfection, and your child will become more confident.
Conclusion
These are effective strategies that will help you raise a smart and confident child. Nevertheless, you must know that it would require effort and patience.
As parents, sometimes we overplay our roles; forgetting that our primary role is guiding our children and presenting choices while we give them the chance to make decisions.
Raising a child as though you own them and can do everything for them is an easy way to raise a timid and dull child.
Allow your child to interact with people from different walks of life and encourage them to ask questions. Make them understand that mistakes are opportunities to learn and get better. Tell them how good they are and how much ability they possess. They need to feel they can do it before anything else. If you implement these strategies above, you can easily raise a smart and confident child.
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