5 positive activities to do with your kids this New Year

As parents, we strive to get our kids to excel in various spheres of life. Be it studies, sports or the arts, we would love to see our children perform well in all spheres. Working hard to achieve a milestone is extremely important. But what happens when for some reason, your child is unable to perform well for what she worked so hard for? 

How your child (and you) cope with failure and setbacks is as important as working towards a goal. Preparing your child in a way that he is not bogged down by failure is an attitude to develop for life. 

Even 5-year olds can connect thought with emotion. 

Here are seven activities you can practice with your child to encourage a more positive attitude: 

1. Be a role model: The most important thing to do when we need to teach anything to our kids is, to model it. Your child imitates you to a large extent. So model a positive outlook when faced with family situations and your kid will definitely follow suit. 

2. Meditation: Incorporate a daily practice of 15 minutes of meditation as a family. Small kids may not actually meditate but seeing you do so with regularity will get them to do it when they are older. One form of meditation is to send loving thoughts to your loved ones. You can chant “May you be safe, happy and healthy” and send these thoughts to your loved ones. This generates a feeling of kindness and warmth. By practising meditation, we are training the mind to think compassionately and with kindness to the people around us. Another form is to practice positive affirmations. Encourage your child to have her own set of affirmations. Example – “I am a happy person” or ‘I am a kind person”. Regular practice will make your child believe in it. 

3. Lend a helping hand: People who are always ready to help out others have higher self-esteem and enjoy overall well being. When you encourage your child to help out others in need, she will feel good about herself. This leads to a generally positive outlook on life. Get your child to help around the house or take your kid over the weekend to an old age home. 

4. Have a journal of happy moments: Whenever something pleasant happens, make it a habit to write it down in a journal. Your kid can have her own journal. Let her record her small and big moments of happiness. Whenever she is feeling down about something, casually go through the journal with her. It will help uplift her and get her to think about the solution rather than the problem. 

5. Set Targets: Positive thinking alone is not enough to achieve one’s goals. It is equally important to plan and execute. So get your child into the habit of making plans. Whenever she has a wish, ask her to write it the wish, steps to execute it, what problems could be faced in achieving it and alternate course of action. Writing down the steps will help her realise whether the plan itself is too optimistic. It develops a long term thinking attitude in kids. 

6. Explore new things with your child: Trying out new things will make your child more confident of venturing into unchartered territory and less fearful of it. So go ahead, try a new instrument, or a sport even if your child is not the best at it.

As your child practices the above activities, he will train his brain to think positive when faced with a tough situation.

Stay Tuned! Stay Relevant!