Empower Your Child for a Future Work World
At our overnight summer camp outside of Chicago, we help prepare our campers to maximize their development. For our mindful, intentional parents, from counselor and therapist Phyllis Fagell, here are some good tools to empower your child and prepare for their future work world. Bullets below, with the full blog available at this link.
Cultivate “big likings”
- Encourage kids to explore new interests. Even a simple project can be life-changing.
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Ask kids to list their 10 most meaningful experiences. This will help them understand what drives them.
Teach them to embrace diverse ideas and accept feedback
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To foster intellectual humility, underscore that no one has all the answers.
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Model how to listen non-judgmentally. If your child comes home upset about a perceived offense, help them see the wider reality of people beyond that one objectionable comment, and build their ability to tolerate and engage with people who have different opinions.
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When they come home with critical feedback, ask them what they can learn from it.
Free their ideas
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Flip complaints into opportunities.
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Encourage your child to write down everything that irritates them, then consider how they might improve a product or experience. Then have them test their ideas.
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To encourage kids to think expansively, ask them to identify the worst possible idea, then state two good things about it.
Expose them to innovation
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Introduce kids to real-life inventors, visit museums, browse websites such as Wired, Popular Science and New Scientist, check out YouTube channels such as Vsauce and Veritasium, or design rockets using the online Kerbal Space Program.
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Identify experiential learning opportunities at school, too.
Use writing and arts to develop emotion regulation and empathy
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Journaling builds self-understanding, enabling one to be genuine and understand that everyone has a teeming inner life.
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Use art to achieve the same goal. Take sketchbooks and colored pencils to museums, then tell your child to pick a work of art to draw. Ask them to reflect on their reaction and to imagine the thoughts of both the artist and subject.
Give them room to explore and imagine
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Be mindful of over-scheduling your child.
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Let kids run with their imagination.
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Give your kids time and space to explore on their own, whether they take the subway to a museum or go for a hike in the woods.
Don’t think of yourself as your kid’s boss
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The more we control kids, the more we lower their sense of control and motivation.
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They need practice making decisions and cleaning up mistakes; if we don’t allow failure, compensation and workarounds, they’re not going to learn it later in life.
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Allow discomfort; adversity leads to increased flexibility, gratitude and life satisfaction.