When you’re looking to help your children through their childhood, particularly when it comes to education, there is a lot that you can do within the home. If you want to spark interest and hopefully educate your children you need to take an active role. We are going to look at specifically how to develop skills within your children as they grow.

Developing their skill set is something that’s important to do from a young age. Since young children are like sponges, you should be mindful about what they’re involved in and what they hear and see you do as their parent. Additionally, we need to be careful of what they watch in movies and television shows. That is why I spend considerable time and money into my ministry of movie reviews.

If you’re looking to develop your child in the best way possible, here are some helpful tips. These will help your children develop new skills as they grow.

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Nurture empathy and gratitude

Empathy and gratitude are two great qualities for an individual to have. Having a positive attitude will help your child go far in life. No matter how they start off in life and where they end up, nurturing this empathy and gratitude as part of their general attitude is a great way to help them become giving and well-rounded individuals.

Empathy is important because it’s an emotion that all people should have. We should all care for those around us to some degree, whether they’re family members, friends, work colleagues, or strangers.

Practicing gratitude is also important, meaning they should be learning the importance of ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. This is something that can be easily taught through real scenarios and experiences.

While some of this might seem obvious to an adult, it’s not the same for a child. When children grow and learn new things for the first time, it may take a while for skills to become second nature.

Make sure they’re getting plenty of exercise

Exercise is an important part of a person’s health. We should all be doing a bit of exercise every day in order to keep the blood pumping. Additionally, exercise helps with brain development and improve memory.

Your children will likely be exposed to a wealth of opportunities when it comes to physical activity and exercise, particularly at school. Additionally, it’s important to encourage and nurture a love for sports and exercise at home.

There are lots of different exercises and sports to get involved in. Whether it’s introducing them to your love of a sport in particular, or you’re doing exercise together like swimming or cycling, you want to ensure they get plenty of exercise every day. The added bonus is that sports help develop not only gross motor skills but also your child’s social skills. 

Encourage play and games

There’s a lot of opportunity when it comes to developing your children’s problem-solving skills. In the world of games and play you can choose from online games, video games, board games and physical activity games.

Of course, there’s been a lot of significant changea in how younger generations of children now play. This is because the internet and all things digital have taken over.

It’s all about getting the balance right which means ensuring they spend some time online and with video games. However, they also need an appreciation for old style of playing with board games and outdoor play with other kids.

Encouraging both sides of this is important, and there are plenty of games in the digital world to be played that offer educational value beyond just entertainment, like solitaire, for example.

If board games seem to not get the best reception from your children when mentioning it, then it can certainly be something you get involved with so that they do find it interesting. Again, as a parent and adult, you can make even the dullest things seem interesting to a child because they look up to you.

Incorporate a daily routine to get them used to one

A daily routine is something that you should be incorporating where possible and if you’re not, then it might make the shock of a school day a little harder to adjust to.

It’s important that they know about routine because it’s going to become part of their life. From attending pre-school to their high school years and any further education they go on to do. It doesn’t just stop there either as normal adult working life relies on an understanding of routine.

By incorporating them into a routine from an early age, is going to instill it in their brain a lot more successfully. The sooner they get into the habit of a routine, the easier they’ll be able to adapt to the new ones they are introduced to in life growing up.

Read a book to them every day

Reading a book to your children every day is something that can really help develop their reading skills and their love of books in general. Additionally, reading to your children helps language development and language skills improve. Studies show that children who are read everyday have better receptive vocabulary, reading comprehension, and also develop a love of reading more than their peers who are not read to. Even children with developmental delays benefit from a parent reading to them.

Additionally, taking turns reading out loud will help your young kids develop public speaking skills. 

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Being a bookworm is a great quality to have and it’s a hobby that your children can pick up from a young age. They will get plenty of reading materials to enjoy at school but reading should also be an enjoyable experience beyond just educational.

Try to read a book to them every day and if you’re not necessarily a big book lover yourself, try to encourage your children to read to you so that you don’t need to do all of the reading as they learn how to speak and read.

In order to get them interested in reading, start reading from the moment they arrive. Even though they might not understand it fully, the pictures and words you’re saying will start to register over time.

You should also consider taking them to the library in order to pique their interest in the assortment of books that are available. Start to build your own collection of books to read to your children and you’ll likely nurture a great love for books in young and older kids as a result.

Teach them about the dangers of online and offline

There are plenty of dangers that exist in the world both online and offline. Knowing what these are and how to communicate them to your children without scaring them to death, can be challenging.

However, it’s important to know the basics and how best they can prevent anything from happening or bringing them harm.

For example, in the online world, they should know not to communicate any confidential information to strangers. You should also be encouraging them to talk to you if they’re worried about anyone they’ve met online or in person.

The more you can teach them about the dangers online and offline, the better. It’ll hopefully prevent them from running into any trouble or any trouble coming after them. You should monitor their online activity when they’re young. Slowly give more freedom to older children who are more capable and want more privacy and independence. 

Help them develop critical thinking skills

It is essential to help your children develop critical thinking skills. These essential skills include problem-solving skills, creativity, good communication skills, analysis, decision-making, analytic reasoning, the ability to question new information and research information they hear and read.

If you have ever spent time on social media, you will understand why these are essential life skills. The amount of information that is shared as fact without much thought being put into it. For example, there are popular posts that will claim that if you share this post, Meta cannot use your information. These posts are false and misleading. But they get shared thousands of times by people who were not taught to fact check and think critically.

Always communicate with your child

One of the most important basic skills to develop with your child is the ability to communicate. While you want to have a good relationship with your child in which you know them inside and out, sometimes that thinking can be a little one-sided, especially once your child turns into a teenager and starts to hide what they’re up to.

Communication is essential. It’s important to tell your child that by communicating, they can keep an open dialogue even when the conversation is not a pretty one. Always having that open channel to communicate with your little one is crucial. Furthermore, it’s something that you can start from the very beginning when they start stringing sentences together.

Developing important skills is an exciting part of being a parent. How much time you invest into this part of their lives, will determine how well-versed, knowledgeable, and head-smart they become. Use these tips to help your children develop their own skills. As they grow, you will see them flourish into the adults that you hope they’ll become.

Check out this post about developing Hand-Eye Coordination. It is essential that your child develop fine motor skills too!