photo credit: the bbp 

How do we motivate our kids to work hard and do their best? The answer is through goal setting for kids. From a baby to a preschooler, there are milestones in physical and mental development. It is nothing wrong to stimulate your baby or toddler to reach a certain development as long as you don’t set his progress as your goal. Parents will shift their focus on Kids’ Academic Performance once the child starts a primary school. If your child gets a D mark for Math, don’t scold him and set A mark as a target instantly. Let’s work together with your child for a goal setting and start with C mark as a goal for an instance. Do remember to set the goal to be achievable for a child. If the child can accomplish C mark, set a higher goal for B mark. Often, eagerly parents set their goal as their kids’ goal. Please do remember that goal setting for kids is more than just academic success, it can be your child’s interest. If your child is interested in soccer or ballet, you may support his/her interest by enrolling him/her in soccer club or ballet course. This kind of support gives the child a satisfaction and self-esteem and it may have a good impact on his study. Read More »

Have you ever noticed your toddler try to button up his shirt or to put on his shoes? It actually sends signals to parents that he learns to be independent. Preschool or kindergarten also plays a part to teach young kids about responsibility and independence before they enter primary school. That’s true, going to school means that a child is responsible for his life, to be an independent person. When a child, 3+ starts to go to kindergarten or preschool, he learns to adapt his life into a society, apart from daddy and mommy. Read More »

Don’t wait until your children grow up to be a teenage and we start to teach them about money. We can teach the schooling kids about money as young as they are in primary one or year 1. At primary one, they learn the basic math and I see the math book that incorporates the value of money in terms of addition and subtraction. Children are observers and they learn fast from observing their parents. Here are 8 simple ways to teach the young kids, preschoolers and schooling kids about money in plain words or casual conversation.  Read More »

If a child has a self-belief, he will succeed in his study and his social life. There is a case of a student who studied hard but couldn’t manage her negative feeling, a fear of failure. Even how hard he studied, he would forget everything on the day of the test.

Here are 5 effective self-help tips for kids to reinforce  their self-belief:  

1. Help your child in their study. Even if your child takes a tuition, it doesn’t mean that the responsibility for coaching him is on tuition teachers.  You need to monitor his progress as well in their study.
2. Pat them on their back.  Loving touch or hug make them more secure and loved. Give them words of encouragement if they need one. Praise them if they do well.
3. Get to know if your child socializes well at school. If you find that your child become a bully victim, you must overcome this problem first. When the child is bullied for a long time, he will have a low self-esteem. 
4. Encourage your child to do his best but don’t set target. If your child can’t achieve the target, both of you will be disappointed. Don’t use threats and rewards to push the child’s achievements. Threat will intrigue a fear. As for rewards, he will get used to them: no reward, no result. He will ask about the rewards before he do or achieve something.
5. Show them positive words, positive images and invite them to listen to motivational audios or videos. You can hang some positive images with words in their room or around your house to give a positive energy for you and your family.

I also like to share my experience dealing with my child’s negative feeling when she was about to go to primary school.
From a kindergarten to a primary school is a big step. Kids are expected to be independent and responsible for their belonging. Teachers are no longer caring and there are more pupils in a class. My eldest was afraid to go to primary school on the first day. She said she didn’t want to learn difficult things, she wanted to learn easy one. I said it was okay to feel afraid. Everyone needed to move forward in life. We talked about her feeling, what made her afraid, what she should do at school. We took a look at Self Help Books for Kids by Joy Berry; Let’s talk about feeling afraid and feeling shy. When she knew the real situation in the book, it would make her less afraid.

As a parent, I do expect kids to behave well and manage or control their feeling.  I found that words of advice aren’t enough,  kids need to see the real situation. I found self-help resources for kids, Let’s talk about feeling…. book series is very helpful. The books help me to understand the real situation for kids.  I also thank to my kids’ school and teachers that they don’t only focus on academic skills but groom every kid.  Kids need to learn managing their emotion as well besides success in their study.  EQ (Emotional Quotient) is as important as IQ (Intelligence Quotient) for an individual to succeed in life.

Let’s talk about feeling….book series showed me and my kids how to handle emotions and difficult situations.  Below is the sample of the book:

The books are fun, informative and really work. The author of the self-help book series for kids is Joy Berry. Joy Berry knows kids. She is the inventor of self-help books for kids.  Please browse Self Help Books for Kids by Joy Berry.