If we desire our kids to be globally competent and competitive, we have to provide them with an education that will equip them to do so. It’s given that all of us parents want our kids to be successful. We’ve all heard about the top-notch Singapore International School and institutions that produce world-class graduates, perhaps one or more of your kids are enrolled in such schools. These types of school foster and practices many of the techniques we will discuss here.
In any case, parenting styles have changed over the years. It’s now arguable that focus on participation is more important than effort. Now let’s go over some of the ways that you can instill competency and competitiveness in your child, applicable as long as they are still living with you and attending school.
Let your kids be kids and limit multitasking
A common complaint many of us parents make about the school is that our kids get too much school work. We think that six hours of school work is robbing the kids their childhood. However, it’s more likely that our kids have only two hours of school work in reality, but it takes them six hours to finish it because of the time lost multitasking and the time spent transitioning and refocusing between tasks.
The simple solution is not to totally remove these distractions, like TV and social media, but to give dedicated time for your kids to enjoy being kids and do their hobbies without school work getting in the way. You can then dedicate time for school work with distractions disabled. This will take discipline on both the student and the parent, but the results are less stress, better academic performance, and more sleep.
Give praise for hard work, but don’t put labels
Sounds counterintuitive but solid science has proven that how we praise our kids has a significant impact on their performance. Students who are praised as smart slightly dip in performance on challenging math exams. On the other hand, students who are praised for trying hard see large increases.
As a supportive parent, instead of constantly praising your kids for being “smart” or for good grades, praise their effort and link it to the positive result. Instead of: “I am proud of for the 100 you got in math”. Say: “I am so proud of you and how hardworking you are in math, and the results show it!”
Get your kids thinking critically
Reading is always good, but it has little value if a child cannot retain or relate the information in real life. Encourage your kids to ask questions in their head while reading and then answer those questions. For instance, they can ask what’s the point a certain paragraph. What the tone is. How it connects to what they’re reading. Why is it important. These are all vital questions students are asking in reality quite often. Encourage them to ask these and other questions as well while reading and then try answering them as well. It encourages them to focus and read more critically.
Show that failure is the path to success
The most successful people all have failed in some way before becoming successful. However, many parents who have had a rough childhood look to avoid the same hardships for their children. The result is that a lot of children are now terrified to fail, whether it be due to their desire to live up to their parents’ standards or not knowing how to cope with it.
This can prevent kids from trying difficult things, reducing their growth and likelihood of success. Before you give them tips on overcoming failure, try sharing them your failures and how you overcame and what you learned from them. You need to let them fail so they can learn how to do it, recover and grow from it. In the future, they won’t fear failure since they’ve had failed so many times on the way to being successful that they will see it as a normal part of the success process.
School is hard – as it should be. But with that difficulty comes fun, excitement, and skills that can be used throughout life. Developing a globally competent and competitive student does not happen by accident. It’s seasoned with struggle and followed up with continues effort.
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