OurFamilyWizard Book Club: Helping Children Develop Confidence and Self-Esteem
A healthy sense of confidence and self-esteem are two wonderful traits for parents to help build in children. Both traits can help any person succeed in life, even starting from childhood.
Similar to other abilities that children develop as they grow, they will develop an understanding of what it means to feel confident and have self-esteem. Kids will learn what it's like to trust themselves and their abilities which will help them take risks and move beyond their comfort zone.
Children develop their sense of confidence and self-esteem in many different ways like when learning new skills, excelling at skills they already have, meeting goals they set for themselves, and receiving the praise they have earned. Even the feeling of being included and understood by others helps to fortify these traits in children.
Through their successes, children will also learn that not being successful at something should not diminish their feeling of self-worth. Feeling assured about your abilities and knowing that it's ok not to always be successful at something helps to balance these traits from growing into feelings of disappointment or selfishness.
As a parent, you play a key role in helping your child build a healthy, positive sense of confidence and self-esteem. The way you talk to your kids and the reactions you have to their various accomplishments failures will influence how your child feels about them self and their abilities.
Sometimes, it's possible for events happening around them to impact their confidence, such as may be the case when parents divorce or separate. There is much that parents can do to help boost their child's self-esteem during this difficult time, yet one particular resource that can support those efforts are books.
Kids can learn a lot about their sense of confidence and self-esteem through other educational materials like books. Reading books about other kids working to understand and build their confidence may speak to your children in a way that is more relatable to them and what they're going through. These two books on confidence and self-esteem in kids will make excellent additions to your family's library.
Please Don't Make Me Fly!
Trying new things can be scary. Learning how to swim or ride a bike are just two examples of new risks that kids routinely take, yet to do so, a child must find a way to trust them self and the grown-ups who are helping them in order to actually take the leap and go for it.
Please Don't Make Me Fly!: A Growing-Up Story of Self-Confidence is an encouraging story about taking the first steps in trying something new. It's a perfect read for kids as young as preschool through first grade.
> Find it in your local library
Worth the Wait
Comparing yourself to someone else is something adults and children can both do. We may wish that we were stronger or taller, or that we were better at dancing or singing. As normal as it is to have these feelings, they can also hurt us by making us feel that our skills or qualities aren't good enough.
Worth the Wait: A Growing-Up Story of Self-Esteem is a story that can help kids see that the traits and talents that make us stand out are what makes each of us special and unique. This is another great read for preschoolers through first graders.
> Find it in your local library
Confidence and self-esteem are two very important qualities for every person to work to develop. While they can be hard to cope with at times, learning what they mean for you and how to build them in yourself are lessons that stick with you throughout your whole life.
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