Is Your Child Too Busy? The Pitfalls of a Constantly Busy Child

Parents today are stretched very thin at times. With work, social demands, and so much more pulling at the strings of parents, it may be a good idea to keep a child busy. But that poses problems as well. Children that are too “busy”, could very well lose a part of childhood that lets them build self-esteem, self-reliance, and even confidence. There are some pitfalls to doing too much as a child, and many parents are finding out the hard way. Instead of going overboard, consider a few notes on why you should balance a child’s activities to allow them some down time from the grind of everyday life.

Play Time Is Diminished

One of the biggest hurdles of the ever-busy child is that they don’t have play time. You may not think that this could be productive, but it’s very important for a young person. As a child grows up, they use this time to use their imagination and creativity. They do this to ensure that they are dealing with a variety of positive elements overall. They create environments and structures that help their brains develop. Even if you think it’s a waste of time, to them, it’s a grand element that is full of wonder. Encouraging children to imagine, and be creative in play time is a great way to build personality constructs and more.

Friendship and Social Time Suffers

Friendships take time to build. Creating long lasting friendships is a great thing for a child. However, if they are constantly busy, moving in and out of classes, going to extract curricular activities, and never allowed to have down time to play with others, they may have a void in communication. You want to allow your child to flourish socially, and that is done by letting them have some time away from the serious nature of some of the activities they may be involved with. Building relationships that last start at youth and develop in time.

Growing Up Resentful

Adults that have busy childhoods, often end up resenting their upbringing. They cite things like, not being able to be a kid, or not being allowed to have a bit of fun. These things way heavy on the minds of millions of people, and through therapy they can be helped. Professionals, however, agree that when raising children, they should be left to have some fun, downtime, and use their imagination to create lavish worlds and more. Suffice to say, kids should have time to be “kids” sometimes.

The Building Blocks of Tenacity – Helping Kids Develop A Stick To It Attitude

Parents admittedly would love to raise children that have a “get to it” attitude. The notion that they should stick to things and not quit when things get hard is a good thing. Sometimes it’s a struggle to get a child to get to that place. You may wish it upon them, you can even make sure to provide ample energy, but it’s not cut and dry. There are some building blocks that need to be put in place for this to manifest, and it starts with simple steps. There is no “secret” formula here, it’s going to take time, but at least you can know what steps help the process.

Don’t Be Quick To Help

Here’s the worst thing you can do for your child, and it’s to jump in and save the day every time. When children know that their parents will bail them out of difficult issues, they will rely so much on it, they won’t try. It’s tough to ignore that parental element that wants to baby, and coddle children as they grow. Ignore it, or you’ll have to deal with teenagers and adults that expect a bail out at every turn. There’s a fine line here, so you’ll have to toe it a bit.

Don’t Let Them Quit

When your child joins something, don’t let them quit too easily. This becomes especially true for lessons, sports, and anything else that takes on practice. They may hate it at first, they may even want to quit outright, but it’s imperative that you let others instruct your children. Let them guide them into how to master something new, and they will appreciate you and their teachers for it. Again, you have to monitor when it’s time to allow one to quit, because there are situations that call for it. But outside of specific issues, don’t let them quit things too easily.

Instruct Them To Bounce Back
The fundamental cornerstone for tenacity is here. You need to instruct your children to bounce back after failure. They may face off against a number of issues. They may fall, skid their knee, or even fail a test. Don’t let them dwell on it, but rather accept it, and help them recover and triumph. Failure is a part of life, and if you can teach children that it’s normal to fail, you’ll be doing a good service. But this only works if you show them the triumph of bouncing back. There’s a give and take here, so don’t just accept failure and leave it alone. Accept failures, but move forward to triumph and overcoming the odds after the fact.

How To Be A Role Model of Self Determination

One of the best things that you can do as a parent is simple, become a role model. BY living your life in a positive manner, you can enrich the life of your children for the rest of their lives. Instead of focusing on the old adage of, “do as I say, not as I do”, you can show them how to live fruitful, powerful lives by the way that you choose to live yours. Kids will emulate their parents, especially the bad habits that may not be empowering for them. With that in mind, consider the following steps to help become a role model with focus on self determination today.

Get Things Done – Time Management

The first way to start on this quest is to get things done from the moment you get up to the moment you go to sleep. Show children how to manage their time. That includes not hitting the snooze button, but instead getting up at the alarm, and fighting through fatigue. Show them that you may not like waking up early and getting your day started, but you fight through it. Don’t become lax here, fight through it knowing that they are going to emulate you. Set up a to-do list and slowly cross things out as you go through and show children that they can do the same. At the end of the day, compare lists, and you’ll be able to show that you go through ups and downs, but you keep pressing forward.

Never Stop Learning – Take A Class

Show children that adulthood doesn’t mean that you don’t learn new things. Take a class, experience something new, and showcase a bit of struggle. Let them know that it’s ok to do hard things, and progress slowly. When stumped, consider taking up something that involves visual progression. For instance, take an art class, or learn how to play an instrument. Show that you are capable to struggle and success through the learning process and they will have an illustrated way of knowing that they are not alone in their own struggles with learning at school, and in other areas.

Eat Right and Exercise

The last way to become a role model of self determination is to keep healthy. This is a real life struggle for a grand majority of people. Make sure that you highlight the importance of this simple daily task. By working on the discipline that it takes to work out, eat right, and maintain weight, you are going to exemplify healthy living. It is important to highlight good habits, and this is one that may seem easy on paper, but many parents struggle with. Managing time, pursuing good health, and succeeding in this will definitely prove beneficial in both the short, and long term.

These are just starting points in regards to becoming a better role model. It’s easy to rest on laurels, go through motions, and try to just coast. Shake things up and find new ways to change yourself, your routine, because children are no doubt watching and shaping their lives alongside yours.

Now Available on Audible.com and iTunes!

Excited to announce that in addition to Amazon, Entrepreneur School For Kids (The Book) is now available on Audible.com and iTunes!

Teach Your Child Inner Strength by Letting Them Fail

Let Your Kids Fail To Teach Inner Strength

Every hero today, every single one has that moment where they have failed. In fact, success cannot be garnered without a few stumbling blocks. Read any inspirational book, look at any movie, or ask any person that is successful in life about whether or not they have ever failed. You’re going to be surprised by what they tell you. Kids today are pushed towards greatness, told they are to succeed, and in some circles are coddled when they stumble. When they aren’t the premier athlete on day one, or when their school work becomes too much, parents look at trying to save the day and make sure that they never taste that bitter defeat, even for a second. It’s bad. It’s imperative that you let your kids fail, as that will teach them so much more than winning all the time. 

Learning From Falls

The first major thing that you have to consider in regards to failing is that it teaches. Experience is the greatest teacher, especially when things don’t go so well. The old adage of putting hands on a stove is a prime example. One puts their hand on a hot stove once, and then never does that again. The reason? It burns. That learning process is severe, painful, and definitely not something that you want to experience, but it’s a great educator. That’s the same for life. Sometimes children need to feel the sting of defeat, so that they can taste how great glory can become. 

No One Is Great on Day One 

Take a look at the greatest people in any sport. Anyone that is at the top of their proverbial field, and then consider how long it took them to get there. Children should be taught this. When they look at icons like Lebron James, consider their failures. For every championship ring, there’s hundreds of hours of practice, hundreds of missed shots, and even injuries. There is no great individual in the world, past, present, or future that will be great on their first day of doing anything. Chances are, they are going to fall short often. The difference here, however, is that they get up time and time again. 

The next time your kids run into a wall, or even fail, remember to tell them that it’s not the end. It’s just time to get up, and try again. It’s in standing up, going forward, and overcoming falls, that one becomes great. The more you can reinforce that in the life of your child, the greater inner strength they will have.

Have Brainstorming Sessions With Your Children

Spark Creative Entrepreneurial Thought Processes In Children With Brain Storming

One of the easiest ways to get your child involved in entrepreneurship, or at least thinking like an entrepreneur is through brainstorming. Millions of business owners do this on a regular basis. They focus on finding new routes to work through money making elements, hiring the right people, building portfolios, and doing a lot of work that is needed on a daily basis. In practice, this can help with project planning, management, and more. Bringing it down to a simpler scale is not complex. It’s a matter of taking the things that a child does and then compartmentalizing them for efficiency.

The Chore Element

As mentioned in the previous post, chores are a great tool to tie to entrepreneurship for your child. You can also very easily spark creativity through chores. When looking at chores that need to get done, you could take out a piece of paper, or use a whiteboard to brain storm how to get things down faster and easier. Sometimes the best thing to do is engage with a child’s visual learning curve. Visual learning uses drawings, more than just text. It’s easy to write a lot of text lists, but children may not find them amusing or fun. That’s where you may want to consider drawing, even simple sketches as you creatively tackle chore ideas and more.

Letting Children’s Imagination Run Wild

Sometimes the notion of business and entrepreneurial lessons can seem drab. That’s why it’s important to focus on sparking creativity. You can easily do this by bringing down hard concepts to the level of a child. Let them engage with some of the ideas, and write down simple things that they would do. Sometimes a session of brainstorming is a matter of writing down as many ideas as possible, in a short span of time. Once they are written, take a step back and see what works, what doesn’t, and why some things are better than others overall. Simply put, let a child’s imagination run wild.

Bring Them Into Your Business

When in doubt, focus on allowing your child to see what your brain storming sessions are like. Chances are you have a lot of elements balanced out, and need help pushing them through. How do you do it? Explain the bigger picture concepts that you deal with, and show children how they too can pursue the same thing. The learning options within the notion of entrepreneurship are endless. It’s just a matter of painting them in language that children understand, and want to explore. With that, you can spark creativity, and an industrious mind all the same.

Begin Teaching Your Child Entrepreneurship with Chores

Engaging the notions and ideas of entrepreneurship at a young age is a great thing. When you can get a child to become interested in business opportunities, and the possibilities that are out there, they learn skills that last a lifetime. Starting in business doesn’t have to be relegated to age, or status. Children can learn concepts fast, and use them to run real life businesses. There’s plenty of stories of young entrepreneurs that have gone out to make serious moves financially, all before they turn 18. Some even starting as young as 8 or 9 years old. Not everyone is going to want to start a full business venture, but there are things that can be done to get started. For instance, chores can help teach fundamentals in many ways. 

Linking Allowances As Part of An Education in Entrepreneurship 

The first major point of interest for teaching children about business is found in chores. Chores can be leveraged to show cause and effect. You can do one of two things. You can give a child an allowance for the chores that they do per week. This shows them that if they work hard, they will get paid a fair wage. It’s a simple process, and it stays with them for a lifetime

The second solution is found with investing. If one does their chores, they can earn a little money through an allowance. The progression there is to invest that money into a business opportunity. Whether it’s supplies for making lemonade, or it’s to buy raw materials for crafting, the allowance earned from chores can be used as startup capital for business options. 

Creating Opportunities

There’s plenty of projects a child can work through, including some that allow them to earn through chores and learn about entrepreneurial endeavors. Working with them to find projects that they can build on their own, or focus on after the fact is the key element. Whether you want them to work through a lot of chores weekly, or a few things here and there, you can show a child the complex nature of what small business owners go through when starting up an endeavor. 

To start on this path, set up simple chores first. A few chores for a small allowance on a weekly basis is enough to get started with learning about entrepreneurial roles, and more. Then progress slowly to larger sums, more work, and teach supply and demand. There’s many learning opportunities found with chores, and it all starts with simple weekly tasks. 

The Best Approach When Teaching Your Child Life Skills

There’s a lot of parents out there that are struggling with teaching their children simple life lessons. Even those that have school aged children have to deal with a variety of issues that can be somewhat difficult to manage overall. Finding the best approach when teaching a child life skills can seem painstaking at times, but there are ways that you can make it a bit easier. To ensure that things are going forward with ease, consider a few simple tips for making lessons stick a bit easier. 

Show Them How You Do Things

The first thing that parents forget to do is in regards to example. Many parents take the “do as I say, not as I do” approach to parenting. If you’re guilty of that, you’re not alone. The problem here is that you can’t enforce certain rules because a child doesn’t know any better. They will see you and assume that they don’t really have to do what you say sometimes, because you don’t do the things asked of them. To avoid that, you’ll want them to see what you do, and when you do it, so that when you tell them to do something, they oblige without question. 

Repetition Is Crucial

If you are frustrated that your child is not picking things up with ease, don’t panic. Repetition is the key to getting your child to learn specific life skills. You have to repeat things over and over again, and once it becomes second nature, you’ll know when to stop. Giving a child instruction can become routine, and eventually they will do things on their own, and when you see that, reward them with praise. Always recognize when they do something on their own, and give them praise for it. Don’t let it slip your mind. 

Patience Is Key 

Above all other tips that you can take with you today, make sure that you exercise an extra amount of patience. This is by far the best approach that you should consider when you’re teaching children life skills of various types. Patience will keep you moving forward when children seem to be lapsing or just not developing the skills you’d like fast enough. Just be patient, and you’ll end up with a positive experience. When all else fails, make sure that you compromise and see things from where they are. Perhaps a new set of eyes will help you establish the right plan of action. Learning the best approach when teaching your child life skills matters greatly in how you approach each situation, no doubt. 

Finding Kid Friendly Business Events To Attend With Your Child

Millions of kids today have great ideas for businesses. So much so that the term kidpreneur is starting to make a big splash. Parenting today lends itself well to training children for business, since tech is a part of daily routine. Children today are adopting technology at far faster rates than ever before, and it’s creating a complete change in how many of them communicate with others. Harnessing this learning potential, many parents look for kid friendly business events to attend with their child. The downside is that these can be hard to isolate, and find. That doesn’t mean that they don’t exist, but there are definitely options that are worth exploring on a deeper level. 

Look For Local Government Sponsored Options

The first thing that you should do is look at local government websites. Every community and municipality has a website for their city. You’ll find that there will be business events listed on these pages. Aside from that, look for the local chamber of commerce website, and look for listings of events that are coming through. You’ll be surprised by how many options there are, some of which are in fact child friendly. While some may seem boring at first glance, many are actually quite entertaining, and for an aspiring entrepreneur, what may seem boring to some, is exciting to them. 

Special Events In Summer 

When the summer hits, you are guaranteed to find all sorts of events to consider. Parenting becomes easier when you fill your summer months with lots of events on a regular basis. Special events for the summer can range from entrepreneur classes, to competition, and more. Look at your local mall, for instance, which can have events planned in this arena. One example is the Annual event that occurs at Windward Mall in Kaneohe, Hawaii. Every summer this event encourages youth to showcase business ideas, and entrepreneurship options. It’s open to ages 6 to 15, and it has been growing annually. This is not uncommon to see in major metropolitan cities, often times sponsored by local malls, and recreation centers. 

Keep Eyes Open 

Often times, kidpreneur events are listed on community boards across malls, big box grocery stores and others. You’ll find that they may be listed under “Kids in Business”, and “B4K” etc. Searching for events about business in your community is the starting point to get children interested in business events, community gatherings and more. It just takes a little bit of digging to find them all. 

A Look At Some Cool Tech For Kid Entrepreneurs

Children today are adopting tech faster than ever before. Young children are not only jumping into the fray of starting business, they are using many of the latest elements in technology to get it done. You’ll be surprised by how many children are starting to go into what is known as kidpreneurships. That’s right, children are starting to take on business and growing fast, and it’s thanks to tech that seems to be booming right now. With that in mind, consider a few new cool tech pieces that are helping kids become business moguls in their own right.

BitsBox Coding Tools 

One of the most interesting of options is teaching children how to code. Programming language is easy to pick up when you’re young, and children can learn how to code all sorts of apps, then sell them within the major stores online. Building an app can seem difficult for many adults, but when subscribing to Bitsbox, each month a new project arrives, and children can learn how to code, create, and ultimately distribute applications that they code themselves.

The Square Credit Card Reader 

The modern lemonade stand is about to get a huge jump, because it can now accept credit cards. If your child has a smartphone, then this little plugin lets them accept credit cards on the fly, with a full POS. Now, this may need an adult to supervise, but it allows the classic lemonade sales option become modern, easy, and profitable all in the same. It’s downright one of the most compelling tools that kids can use today, even if it wasn’t originally marketed to them.

Compose Yourself 

This is a tech option that allows children to learn musical notation. The goal is to figure out how to put them together and form a full song, and orchestral solution. There are roughly two hundred million combinations that can be used. Along the way children will learn how to read music, compose it, and build sound structures. This could lead to learning how to play an instrument, and perform for audiences with ease.

The above are just a few ideas that have been explored in regards to entrepreneurship for children. These are just some of the many options that exist. Children today are learning how to create websites, build apps, and make music easier than ever. That’s just the tip of the iceberg too, as many are building serious business from the ground up using tech, apps, and more.

Simple Tips To Help Your Child Start A Lemonade Stand

For parents that have a kid entrepreneur on their hands, there are a lot of things that they can do. However, to make things easier, why not go with a traditional option? One such solution is that of a lemonade stand. The iconic option is something that a lot of children work on, and parents can help them create a nice little stand, to help with entrepreneurship at a young age. All you need is a little bit of elbow grease and a kid can sell through a lot of lemonade fast. Here are a few tips to help your child start a simple stand.

Building The Stand

A stand should have a small counter that can hold a pitcher, some cups, and perhaps a box for change. This can be built with a lot of different materials, or you could buy a premade solution. Decorate the stand to resemble what you want to sell, painting lemons here and there, and adding some signage. This is a simple art project that you can put together with relative ease.

Make Price Signs

The next thing that you should do is set up signage that tells the community how much a cup of this drink will be. Make the signs colorful, and make sure that the price is prominent, and even add a little note as to where the money is going to go. Once you have these, put them on the stand, and around the neighborhood when you’re ready to sell.

Mix The Lemonade

Makes sure that you have a pitcher, some cups, and plenty of ice. Making this drink isn’t a tough one if you go with a powdered mix. However, if you want to go fresh, make sure that you help with cutting lemons, squeezing juice, adding sugar and more. Don’t allow a child do this all on their own, as it can prove dangerous. Make at least 1 full pitcher at a time before venturing outdoors.

These are the essential elements that you need to have in place when you’re going to help out a kid entrepreneur. You may find that these are simplistic, but honestly, a lemonade stand is easy to set up. Once you have all the components, just set up shop on the lawn outside of your home, and wait for individuals to come by. You’ll find that the neighborhood will be quick to patronize a stand run by a child, so getting it up and running will require a little parental help.

Business Basics Towards Better Beings: Why Entrepreneurship Should Be Taught In Schools

In these modern times, gearing kids toward becoming future business owners and teaching them the values and core skills of entrepreneurship is something that will definitely be advantageous to them and to the society. Entrepreneurship education develops a child’s holistic growth and helps in preparing a child for the future.

One great lesson that children can learn from entrepreneurship is being flexible and responsive to whatever situation they may experience. Entrepreneurship hones a person’s innate talent and skills and teaches him how to think outside the box. Business owners, and adults in general, need to be innovative and creative when it comes to day to day living in order to maximize their potential and explore more possibilities towards success. At the same time, entrepreneurship promotes critical thinking, in-depth analysis, weighing pros and cons, and taking calculated risks.

Entrepreneurship also promotes emotional well-being. It develops a child’s interpersonal skills and camaraderie while being independent and reasonable. Managing and working with people is something that cannot be taught by books but can only be learned through experience. Since business management is technically a fair ground for everyone, entrepreneurship promotes equal opportunity, guarantees social justice, and develops self-confidence.

Lastly, entrepreneurship teaches children the importance of responsibility and social awareness. Managing a business requires a great deal of maturity and accountability, and teaching children these core values at an early age will prepare them for the uncertainties and challenges that they might (and they will!) experience once they get into adulthood. At the same time, being aware and informed with the needs and demands of the society helps children to be sensitive with others and more cooperative with the people around them.

Entrepreneurship may not teach children textbook concepts, but it develops children’s character, personality, and attitude towards themselves, towards others, and towards the society. And in the continuous advancement of today’s society, these aspects could prepare today’s children to be better beings in the future and these could be the key towards achieving great success and growth when they grow up.