Parenting Mistakes To Avoid When Teaching Business Skills To Kids

Parenting is not an easy task. No parent today is going to tell you that it’s all a cakewalk. In fact, there are a lot of stress points that you’re going to run through. As children grow up, they become more and more difficult to manage and you’ll have your work cut out for you. There are a few things that you can start teaching them today, that will help them in the future. For instance, you can teach them about entrepreneurship, and business. There are a lot of skills that translate beyond business, and parents can teach kids to establish amazing connections that will help them through life.

But with the option to teach them about business, and all the creative elements that come with it, there are some issues. Parents can make mistakes that can stifle the forward progress of children. You don’t want to make mistakes when teaching them certain skills, because they can take that with them onwards to the future. Here are just a few mistakes to avoid.

Pushing Too Hard

It happens to the best parents, you push too hard. You want your child to pick things up fast, you want them to learn quickly, but they aren’t interested. Some parents push so hard, they end up damaging the creative thinking process of a child. You don’t want to push kids into something they just aren’t interested in. You’ll need to cajole them in a genuine manner. Find ways to relate what they love to the business lessons that you want to show them, and you’ll find new avenues that work.

Not Bringing Things To Their Level

You may understand the bigger lessons that come with business. You may even be an entrepreneur, and have a set of vocabulary words engraved in your mind. If you aren’t a beginner, you will need to revert to being one in your mind. Teaching children requires you to take complex ideas and make them simpler. If you can simplify the complexities that come with business, you’ll end up with a positive push forward.

Losing Patience

In conjunction with the first mistake mentioned above, consider the patience element. You have to be very patient when teaching a child about entrepreneurship and business as a whole. They may not pick up things fast, and they may seem frustrated with the bigger picture. It’s the role of a parent to be there to calm anxieties, and be patient while they learn. Some lessons take a great deal of time to fully understand and teach, which is why it’s so critical that parents do not push too hard or lose sight of the bigger picture.

3 Life Long Skills Children Can Learn From Entrepreneurs

Children soak up information faster than adults. They are sponges for learning, and you can help them along the way right now. Parents, teachers, and anyone that takes care of children will want to show them things that they can take with them for the rest of their lives. With so many distractions on the way to adulthood, it can be hard to engrave certain lessons. One of the paths that can help them improve today, and help them in the future is learning lessons from entrepreneurs. There are some specifics that come with this, and the roots go deep within the mind of children. Consider the following 3 lifelong skills they can learn from those that have paved their own path in business.

Self-Motivation

This is a skill that is essential for everyone. Some people don’t get to the point where they are motivated until they are older. Others never learn. Entrepreneurs have to motivate themselves to work, especially those that are working in a freelance or remote position. Without that motivating factor, many would not make any money or would have to succumb to dealing with a lackluster career path. Children that can learn how to be self-motivated will be able to succeed in nearly any arena that they find themselves in.

Math Skills

When looking at the lifelong skills that children need, you may be stumped. But if you’re honest, you’ll admit that math is one of them. Math can be a struggle for children of all ages, but when you frame it within the confines of entrepreneurship, you’ll see that it matters a great deal. Even basic math, fractions, and simplified algebra is used in business all the time. Bookkeeping alone takes up a lot of time because it measures whether or not someone is successful or failing at business overall.

Social Skills

The key to success for entrepreneurs comes with socializing with others. They not only have to work with customers, they need to network all the time. Children that learn social skills at a young age are more confident down the road, and can benefit when they go to college, or enter the work force down the line. Social skills beyond social media are critical today, and those that can navigate that element of communication will find success in any industry. This is one thing that is missing with a lot of individuals, which is why it’s important to teach children at a young age.

Goal Setting: Creating Goals With Your Children

One of the most important aspects of life that you can teach your children is planning. Setting goals, working towards milestones, and rejoicing when things are accomplished is a great thing. Many parents struggle with the chaos of so much going on, but there are things that can be done to ensure that children can learn this valuable part of life. The following guide can help with setting up a simple plan towards goal setting in a monthly arena.

Choose A Calendar

The first thing that you should do with your children is simple, get a calendar. Focus on a wall calendar that they like, and let them pick it out. This is going to be the foundation of planning, as  it will allow them to write in the dates, and schedule things that should get worked on. This allows them to have a little more control over their projects and planning overall, so let them choose just about anything here.

Write Small Milestones

After you have the calendar up on the wall, write in some small milestones that lead to a larger project. For instance, let’s say that you wanted to have a month-long project of cleaning up the house. On each week write down 1 task per day, and that’s it. By the last day of the month, 30 or 31 projects will be done, making the larger goal completely done. The same can be done to break up month long chores, school work and more. When a small element is done, put a red line through it to make sure that it’s done, and the visual is in place.

Fill Up The Calendar

The options mentioned above can’t work unless you follow up on the process. Setting weekly milestones with 7 steps forward is a good way to start. But over time, you’ll want to fill up the calendar with more and more tasks. By doing this, and crossing out the things that are done, you’ll show children how to set up a goal, follow through on steps to complete it, and finally cross it off a list. This is the most basic way to teach planning, and follow through.

If you’re not an organized person, or you have trouble setting goals and accomplishing various tasks, don’t worry. You can join your child in setting up a calendar, and crossing things out as you accomplish them. You can even rejoice together when you both have done everything on the list!

Wishing you an amazing year!

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.