Children are born as blank slates. They begin their life from zero, and their nature and character take shape as they grow.
While schools hone their academic skills, mere academic development has never been enough to thrive in life. As a parent, you are responsible for enriching the mind and soul of your kid.
Here are a few tips to help you.
Table of Contents
Help your child enhance their language skills
What could be better than books to enrich the life of your kid? Reading to your kids is the best way to help them to enhance their language skills. Take out some time and sit down with them and a book.
Invest in different kinds of reading material and expose your child to the world of fantasies and stories. Select the reading material according to the age of your child. For infants, select board books or cloth books that are safe for their chewing, tossing, and dragging habits. Select board books with rounded edges or picture books with large pictures, photos of other babies, and bright colors for older infants. For toddlers, select small and sturdy board books with no text or simple text to allow your kid to use their own imagination and create their own stories. Also, buy concept books and books with repetitive texts. Counting books, ABC books, phonics books, and books with nursery rhymes and poetry are great for pre-schoolers.
Apart from reading, encourage your child to talk to develop their language skills. Indulge in conversations with your little one. Let them talk about their day or interests.
Introduce them to everything
Give your kid a broader perspective and experience by taking them out everywhere- farms, gardens, libraries, museums, historic sites, grocery stores, etc. Fill their minds with curiosity and adventure.
Get them outdoors
Modern homes with lots of gadgets tend to imprison kids. With mobile phones, laptops, television, voice assistants, and video games surrounding them, kids tend to get disconnected from the outer, real world. In no time, they get obsessed with electronics and fail to foster any real relationship with things that matter the most.
To introduce your kid to the real world:
- Expose them to the outdoors.
- Take them to parks, farms, woods, or fields.
- Plan weekend camping or hiking trips with friends and family.
Spending time in nature is healthier for your kid, much more than you anticipate.
Play with them
Apart from books, games also teach a lot of life lessons. They help in teaching teamwork and sportsmanship. Encourage your kid to take up sports- anything they love.
Plan a family game night every weekend. Include all the members and play fun board games.
Work on their emotional intelligence
Your kid’s emotional intelligence is their ability to recognize and manage their emotions. An emotionally intelligent kid knows their emotions, knows how to express them the right way, is empathetic towards others, and knows how to deal with negative emotions. All in all, high emotional intelligence is a recipe for a successful life.
Teach emotional intelligence to your kid with the help of emotional intelligence books and toys.
Answer to their questions
Kids are curious by nature. They tend to ask numerous questions and express their concern on the weirdest of things.
Look at it as an opportunity to enrich your kid with more knowledge and awareness. Answer their questions patiently.
The bottom line
The groundwork for leading a happy and successful life begins in childhood. The better you nurture your kids during their growing years, the better is the quality of life they lead.
Use these tips to raise a well-rounded kid. Create your own home library.
Keep track of the books you have.
Featured Photo by olia danilevich from Pexels
