How do I find a balance when trying to help encourage my child to grow?

How can we best encourage our little ones without pushing too hard or hand holding too much? It's something I really struggle with and I feel like no matter what I do things are out of balance. Anyone else deal with these feelings? Maybe this is the "mom guilt" everyone has been talking about?

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RM

Rebekah posted December 2, 2019

Teaching our kids to keep trying takes time. You can start when they are babies. For example, when they are reaching for toys during tummy time, you may cheer them on with words and smiles. This should help with language and social emotional development. Toddlers can fixate on an object or activity and be super persistent about it so supporting them along the way and redirecting when necessary is beneficial. Once they are preschool age they can usually focus a lot longer on activities, this is when it is important to support and encourage. It is also important to challenge them and give them space to research and experiment on their own before supporting. 0 Likes

CP

Cecilia posted December 2, 2019

We have found the most important thing here is communication. If you communicate with your child and teach them slowly using words and examples you build a better relationship with them. If you have a pretty strong bond with your kids and spend time doing at least some leanring activities with them you will know when they are really struggling and when they may be waiting for a helping hand out of habit. We recently started working on simple addition with our 3 year old Bobby and we have noticed he has been holding off on answering
and waiting until we give him the answers. We started reading about teaching for multiple intelligences and have started trying to implement this. We pick one thing, whatever it may be, in this case addition, and we set up various types of activities to support. Example,
we have worksheets and fun colored crayons and markers in the art area, a fine motor rice and bin with little treasures he can pick out and count with, we bought a giant die set so we use this outdoors and do jumping jacks, and as a special treat we cook together! All these involve math and addition without him realizing it. This helps us find where he is actually struggling so we can support him properly while still giving him room to practice and grow. 0 Likes