Raising a child is no picnic. Even the basics of keeping them fed, safe and warm can seem like a troublesome task at times. But the part that a lot of us worry about is whether we’re raising our child to be the best person they can be. Raising an active, motivated person that can accomplish things isn’t a walk in the park. It needs you to be as active and forward thinking as you would like them to be. If you want your child to be a go-getter, you better be prepared to work towards it. We’re going to give you a few tips on just how to do that.

 

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Starting with emotional security

In order to communicate properly with a child, you need to establish a base of emotional security with them as early as possible. How children think of the world is directly linked to the kind of treatment they get from us. A child who gets reassurance, attention and enthusiasm will look to the world for the same. A child who lacks it has more chance of being withdrawn and seeing the world as something to be wary of. Be responsive to your children and treat their mistakes as learning opportunities. Not behaviour that needs correction.

 

Give them a space to be active

Physical activity is incredibly important to developing an active, motivated person in children. That’s why kids need the right space to be active. If you have a garden, make it child friendly as soon as possible by doing things like eliminating pests. If you don’t have a garden or a big enough garden, take them to the park instead. Start playing actively with your child as early as you can. This will make physical activity part of their life that’s a lot more easily maintained

 

Get involved in sports

Sports teach children all sorts of things besides how to be active and why exercise matters. It also carries valuable lessons of responsibility and teamwork. More than that, you can establish a great connection with your child by getting involved in their sporting life. It can mean supporting them in their pursuits. Or it can mean helping organise local 3v3 soccer tournaments. Being an integral part of their sporting life gives you a shared passion that you can easily bond over. Just try not to get too demanding of your child so the sport is no longer fun.

 

Go karting

Go karting is one of the best activities that you can do with your child to get them thinking competently and foster their skills. Teaching them how to drive a go kart is a shared experience that both of you will have a lot of fun and benefit from. It’s also a good idea to give them that sense of competition early. You don’t want to raise them to think themselves above anyone else. You do, however, want to teach them about striving for success. All wrapped up in a fun day out, go karting is one of the best solutions to do just that.

 

Fostering creativity

Creativity is a fantastic trait for any child to learn. When we think of creativity, we often think of the arts and expressing one’s self. But thinking creatively is just as big a part of it. In fact, thinking creatively can be immensely helpful in later life. Give children plenty of structured play time to help them develop creativity. But also give them unstructured play time, free of restraints and let them explore their own. Creativity isn’t something that we’re all born with innately. It’s something that develops.

 

Expanding their mind

If you start early, it’s not too difficult to make a fun day out of an educational visit. Sure, we know the clichés of children being utterly bored and lifeless on museum trips. But if you go with them early and answer their questions enthusiastically, it can be a lot more of a fun experience. Children are naturally curious, so don’t think that they won’t get anything out of it. Let them experience the exciting side of history. Show them what other cultures are like. Explore nature with them and watch them develop an interest that even grows beyond yours.

 

Motivation

Besides creativity and a thirst for learning, motivation is a key trait for being successful in life. This links into the earlier point about how you teach your kids. Instead of nagging your kids to do things, motivate them, instead. This doesn’t necessarily have to involve some kind of leverage, either. When you want them to fix a mistake they’ve made, describe the situation instead of placing blame. When you want to praise them, tell them exactly what you’re praising instead of being generic. Motivation requires an understanding of goals and how they’re achieved. Teach that as soon as you can.

 

Finding their passions

As a parent who wants to teach their child passion and interest, it can often feel like you’re being dictatorial. That you’re pushing the interests you want instead of what they want. Take the time to let your child find their own interests. Sometimes they may have no idea so showing them some examples can be fine. Find what excites them and what makes them aspire. Then support them and be with them as they delve into it. But don’t be angry if they find it doesn’t stick. Be loose with your expectations and constant with your support.

 

Give them their own space

A child’s bedroom is where a lot of their contemplation and self-exploration happens. Without them noticing it, they are doing a lot of their developing right in there. So make sure they have a bedroom that lets explore themselves. Sometimes, it can be a bedroom that they love, that ignites their creativity. Sometimes it can be a bedroom that lets them explore it. For the latter, using chalkboard paint can give them all the space they need to foster their own ideas. It also stops them from using your wallpaper, which is nice.

 

Making them a leader

It’s not mean to admit that you want your child to excel. Or that you want them to want to excel. Sure, there’s overdoing it and forcing them to become hyper-competitive. But there’s another path to show them to follow, too. Leadership is an important and rare skill and it is one you can teach your child. A lot of proper teaching methods as raised above will have them use your example in their own leadership roles. Make sure you instil them with confidence to persevere. As well as the communicate, too. We’ll cover that, next.

 

Talking with your child

A lot of parents don’t spend enough of their time communicating to their children. Or if they try, they find they don’t know how to get through to them and give up or get angry. But remember that perseverance is important, so set the example. Put the emphasis on listening to your children. Get on their level physically to show that you are open to communicate. Repeat what you’ve heard and ask specific questions so they follow the logical communication chain. A lot of children don’t immediately understand how conversations work, so keep it simple.

 

Engage them in the world

We’ve covered a lot of great qualities to raise in a child that you want to succeed. But one that will help them in this as well as others is by engaging them in the world. This means empathising with and helping people. Teaching children to give time to volunteering and charity early can help them broaden their views of people. It’s also helpful for them to know that there are people less fortunate than them. This should help them become less selfish people in later life and should hopefully reflect in choices they make down the line.

 

Creating competence

Self-confidence is a great thing to have. It’s the final piece of the puzzle when it comes to being a go-getter. But self-confidence is even better boosted by a feeling of competence. Giving your child tasks to accomplish is the key to this. A lot of parents do anything to help their children. But in doing so, sometimes they take all the need for competence from their lives. Support and instruct your children to think creatively about tasks you give them. They might want the easy way out in the middle of it, but be supportive and they’ll start to develop the confidence that comes with ability.

 

Having a child geared for a great start in life is all about what they believe they can do. It’s in their confidence and competence. It boils down to how creatively they can think and how they can persevere. Giving your child situations to adapt to and guiding them gives them that creativity and your guidance helps them to guide others. We worry about what sort of person our child will be all the time. So long as you take the time to be the best kind of person, you can be sure they’ll follow in your footsteps.