Throughout life, your children will have to face numerous tasks that will not be to their liking. These activities, although they will help you reach goals and achieve what you want, will not be appealing or naturally awaken your motivation. It is in these cases when the value of the effort will allow them to reach the end. Therefore, it is important to instill it from the earliest years.
In recent decades, lax and permissive parenting styles have increased, in which discipline and perseverance are not given relevance. This results in children unable to tolerate frustration, having difficulty persevering and throwing in the towel at the first setback. To prevent this from happening in your family, we offer you some interesting tips.
Why should we instill the value of effort?
In the first place, it is worth remembering why it is necessary to rescue the value of effort as a fundamental pillar in the education of the little ones. It’s clear that being able to persevere is decisive in multiple areas of life; to learn a new skill, to improve in a sport, if you want to pass a subject or to finish a project.
Thus, both in their academic and personal life, they will have to test their efforts to achieve certain goals. In fact, this will have a positive impact on a psychological level. And it is that a child who knows how to be constant develops greater confidence in himself and in his abilities.
Therefore, he becomes a more autonomous and determined person, and he dares to pursue his purposes without fear of failure. Now, how can you help your children acquire the value of effort? We’ll tell you then.
Learning the value of effort is decisive to face life in any of its stages.How to teach the value of effort from home?
The value of effort comes from homeschooling by making learning more meaningful. Although projects and tasks that require perseverance can be proposed at school, the attitude is adopted based on what is observed and received at home. Thus, in addition to giving an example, you can implement some of the following guidelines.
Reward the effort
It is much more positive for a child to be praised for his effort and perseverance than for his qualities. For example, instead of telling your child how smart he is or how good he is at math, start to focus on valuing their perseverance and their work.
In this way, it will be more capable of taking on challenges because you will know that excellence is not expected from the first moment and that what is truly valuable is daring to try and improve.
In addition, try to focus on the process instead of the result. Do not prioritize school grades but the effort that the child has invested in the subject. With this, you will see that your work and your involvement are seen and valued instead of being overlooked.
Teach them to learn from mistakes
Effort is a path where mistakes are inevitably made. This teaches that you have to get back up after a fall. It is important that your children understand that failure is part of the learning process; Otherwise, they will give up at the first mistake, considering that they have already failed.
Accordingly, when your child performs a task inappropriately, avoid scolding him. Instead, help him ask himself the questions that will allow him to improve. “What do you think you have failed?”, “how could you do it in a better way?”, What changes do you think you can make to achieve a better result?
Don’t overprotect your children
Some children do not know how to make an effort because at home It is not allowed. There are parents who, trying to make life easier for their children, do everything for them; They pick up their room, do their schoolwork for them and buy everything they ask for.
In this way, the only thing that is achieved is to create in children the feeling that they only have rights and no duties; They begin to think that the world revolves around them and that they can achieve anything they want without working. The problem arises when they go out into the world and face a contrary reality.
Therefore, avoid overprotecting your children and do not do for them what they can do for themselves. Let them try, learn, plan and persevere. It is in this way that they will learn to tolerate frustration and to be constant.
Propose medium and long-term projects
To instill in children the value of effort you can propose them to carry out projects that require perseverance over time. It is important that they are activities that motivate them, that attract their attention and that are pleasant. In addition, it is more positive if they are carried out as a family.
For example, you can encourage them to create an album with photos of the whole summer, to plant a small urban garden or to do some craft that requires several phases. Thus, by committing to taking pictures of every important event, or taking care of the plants every day, they will be involved in a project that will later bear fruit.
In short, the value of effort is taught on a daily basis and First of all, it requires a commitment on the part of the parents.. You have to arm yourself with patience to allow your children to do things for themselves (even when you would do them much faster), to fail (even if you have to clean or fix their mess later) and to have real opportunities in which they can learn to persevere
The advantage is that the values and habits acquired in childhood will remain for life. For the same reason, a child who has understood the value of work and effort you will be more willing to pursue your goals, You will be better able to take on challenges and achieve. So it is an excellent investment.