Self-esteem activities can help children face challenges with confidence.
Children who often engage in self-esteem activities are known to have better mental health and feel happier.
Self-esteem activities can also promote grit and resilience in children and adults.
Angela Duckworth defines grit as “Passion and perseverance towards long term goal.” On the other hand, resilience is bouncing back after a challenging situation.
Thus, having grit and being resilient is what propels us to greatness, not just in our lives but those around us.
Young children need to be taught how to persevere in times of challenges.
Teaching your child to be resilient and to live a life full of passion will guarantee them an experience of success.
The importance of self-esteem activities for students:
Self-esteem can help influence the decisions your child makes in their life. It is about a person’s belief about their own value and self-worth.
Self-esteem activities should be incorporated in your child’s daily lives. Using simple daily mental exercises your child can value the things they have in their life and not take it for granted.
They will take better care of themselves and explore their full potential.
Most importantly, self-esteem activities will help your child stay resilient during challenging times.
Here are 7 simple self-esteem activities to promote grit & resilience:
-
Finding a Purpose
Your child needs a purpose to live a life of fulfillment.
According to researchers, children are likely to perform well when they believe they have a purpose of fulfilling.
As a parent or guardian, you have to teach your child to develop or find his/her purpose.
One of the best self-esteem activities is by asking children about their short term and long goals.
What do they plan on achieving when they grow up? Does he/she want to be a doctor, writer, or something else?
If your kid is younger, use a visualization board, which is a more engaging approach. The board will help them come up with positive images about their future.
Once they have made up their minds, help them set up short term goals that lead toward the ultimate goal.
2. Understanding the power of yet
This is a great way to start to promote self-esteem and to help children understand the concept of a growth mindset.
It helps them make that mental shift by altering the way they speak to themselves.
Writing down things you can’t do yet on one side of the paper.
On the opposite side write down what you can do to be good at that thing.
To make it even more fun, you can get children to write down what they feel about the things they can’t do.
Then get them to write what is causing them to feel that way.
Many times the things we think we can’t do is just our negative inner voice. Once we write them down and let it go we can achieve everything that we want.
Don’t forget to check out the Personalised growth-mindset kit made to help kids find their purpose
3.Self-Esteem activities that involve storytelling
There is nothing as motivating as stories of “from grass to grace,” particularly from famous people.
If your child has someone, he/she looks up to, share some of their challenges and how they made it. If he/she is a fan of harry potter, share J.K. Rolling’s story of how she overcame her challenges.
When your child identifies with someone they respect, they are going to work hard to overcome their challenges.
Reading famous failure stories can also help children in raising their own self-esteem, especially those who are currently struggling in school.
Understanding that success comes with hard work and perseverance can help in raising a child’s self-esteem.
Download the THE GROWTH MINDSET KIT with Inspirational stories to help them build positive habits from a young age.
4.Ask Them What They Find Challenging
Self-esteem activities involve identifying the challenges in your child’s life. Ask them what they find hard in their life.
Then ask them why they think it’s hard and what they can do about it.
If they can point out the hard part of their lives, they will most certainly come up with a possible solution.
You can suggest for them to break the challenge into small parts that are manageable but don’t give them answers.
According to Lauren Tamm, a parenting blogger, it is best not to give your child answers to their problems. However, it is okay to guide them in identifying the challenge.
Use the exercise sheet below to help them manage chhalanges. It has many other anxiety management activities too.
5.Positive Affirmations
Positive affirmations can be powerful self-esteem activities for children and adults
By using the right sentences we can enhance their wellbeing and boost their self-confidence. Positive affirmations can also encourage a growth mindset.
However, when we think of affirmation we tend to think of ourselves speaking in front of a mirror and repeating things to ourselves.
Take some time during the day to look into your child and let them know that they are loved. For instance, before bedtime, you can say “I love you and you are amazing”.
You should also recognise your child’s unique strength and whenever possible point that out to your child. For instance, if they are good in drawing you can tell them “You draw like Picasso, am sure you can be a great artist if you keep practicing.”
You can use the printables below to remind your kids how much they are loved by their family.
6.Conducting Interviews
Please encourage your child to conduct interviews on adults that have a positive view; this will help them to be optimistic.
Ask them to interview successful people around them; they will be able to learn how to live a fulfilled life.7.
7. Share Some of Your Passions
Please encourage your child to step out of their comfort zones and face the world like how you have done.
Please share some of your passions and how they have helped build you. Don’t let it be about parenting; let them see the fun part of your life. When he/she views this, they will also be encouraged to develop their passion.
Conclusion
Self-esteem activities can be incorporated in your child’s daily lives. It does not need to be hard and complicated. Simple affirmation, goal setting activities, and mindful reading can boost a child’s confidence.
Before you go don’t forget to get the Personalised Growth mindset kit for children
There are endless possibilities on how you can incorporate self-esteem activities in your classroom and home.
When kids are struggling, it is important to accept those feelings and help them overcome them using the growth mindset activities. This can be a useful tool for your child to be reminded of how unique and amazing they are.
