This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats. All tips, opinions and thoughts are my own.
The essays have been written and re-written, edited and edited again with new eyes. Transcripts have been sent and received. The SAT and ACT have been taken and scores reported. Recommendation letters have been composed and submitted.
And by the end of the week, my baby girl will have officially applied for college. Now, THAT is a big day…for her and for me as her mom.
After that last “submit” button is clicked, we play the waiting game, watching the mail to see that much-desired acceptance letter. I know she’s qualified. She’s done everything she could in school – good grades, club leadership, volunteering, mentoring, and now a teaching internship. It has been amazing – tough, yes, but also incredibly rewarding – to watch her reach her potential. She has thrived. She’d pushed herself. And she has grown.
How to help your kids reach their full potential:
Helping her grow to her full potential (and continue to grow!) has not happened over-night. No matter what stage your kids are at, you can help them today to reach their full potential. Here are a few things we’ve done:
- Foster independence: One of goals I set as a new mom was to teach my kids to do things on their own as soon as possible. Even with little things like putting their folded clothes into their own drawers or putting away the clean silverware, show your kids that you believe in them – that they CAN do it! When they realize that they can do the little things, and that someone believes in their abilities, then they are more likely to be confident to try bigger things without fear.
- Try new things: Sometimes it’s important to step out of your comfort zone and try new things. You never know what new love or talent you’ll discover as you stretch beyond what you normally do. This tip applies to kids and adults of all ages.
- Keep the communication open between parent and child: One of the best experiences I’ve had as a mother of teenagers has been seeing them comfortable enough to come to me to share their joys, their worries, and their successes. Because I’ve kept the lines of communication open since they were young, they know that they can share anything with me. We’ve been able to grow and learn together because of it.
- Give kids responsibility: Nothing teaches kids about “real life” than a little bit of responsibility. My older kids are responsible for their own laundry (want clean clothes? You know where the washing machine is!), they take turns cooking dinner for the family, and they babysit the younger siblings as a family duty, not a paid job. Demonstrating responsibility in a “safe” environment at home will help prepare them for bigger responsibilities as they get older (like driving a car or getting an apartment at college! Eek!).
- Encourage kids’ interests: No matter what kids are interested in (as long as it’s something safe!) you can find ways for them to learn and grow by encouraging their interests. Check out books, watch videos, and help them learn all they can about whatever it is that gets them excited. Let them feel like an expert. ALL learning, even if it’s not a traditional school subject, helps kids grow. And learning to love the process of learning something will pay out in huge dividends in the end.
- Set goals: Teach kids NOW how to set goals and follow through with them. Make charts together, come up with incentives and reminders, and talk about how to accomplish goals both big and small. Imagine how much better off they’ll be as future adults who know how to follow through on a goal!
- Don’t give up…most of the time: We’re always told to never give up, to stick with things til the end. While it’s important to stick with commitments, I believe it’s important to realize limitations and to not push something that doesn’t “fit” just for the sake of not giving up. Sometimes it takes some exploring – trying a new sport or a new instrument, for example – before you find the things that your child is passionate about.
Frosted Mini Wheats has a great visual called Morning Matters with tips for helping kids find enriching activities beyond the school day. Click on the image to download the full-sized PDF.
Visit Scholastic.com/PCBigDay for tips, articles, and activities to do with your kids. EVERY day can be a BIG DAY. Follow the conversation on Twitter with Scholastic’s @ParentandChild and hashtag #PCBigDay
What are YOUR tips for helping your kids reach their full potential?
© 2013, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
I agree with what you have written. When children have responsibility they have ownership and thus control-such a powerful tool.
My favorite cereal is the Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats!
I agree about trying new things. It’s good for kids to help them hone in on what they like most!
This is my kids favorite cereal!! =) We try and parent to lead the kids towards what they are interested in and support them in their interests.
Great advice. I try hard to foster independence in my kids, because it is easy to coddle them!
And I can tell you are doing it well with your girls! :)
Thanks! I’m so glad another parent agrees with me! :)
All those tips are great but I especially like don’t give up most of the time. Sometimes hobbies or sports just aren’t a good fit. It is better to try and then switch to something that is a better fit. We’ve had to do that in the past.
Love the list of tips – Keep the communication open between parent and child – that is my number 1!
I don’t have kids but I definitely agree with your tips. I think encouragement is so important at any and every age!!
Great post, it is great to see parents out there who support their children and help them grow up.
I actually struggled with fostering independence. I wanted to do everything for my son, and it took me a while to realize that I wasn’t doing him any favors by doing so much for him. Luckily, he catches on to things really fast. :)
I loved all of your advice. I need to give my kids more responsibilities (ie, chores). Lots of times I just do things myself so I don’t have to wait for them to do it. But as they get older I can see they really need to learn to do things for themselves.
I’m trying to get better about having my son do more stuff on his own. I really have to fight the urge to be a helicopter mommy!
These are great tips. Seems like I am struggling a lot with this today. Definitely something I need to sit back and re-evaluate.
To help my daughters reach their full potential, I always gave them encouragement and was their biggest cheerleader!
I LOVE this post! It’s so true. Fostering independence, goals and helping them grow into their own is so key to them reaching their full potential.
Great advice. I love that you included open communications and that connection. I think a lot of parents (Esp with tweens or teens) can get really focused on giving them lots of chores and responsibility (which are no doubt important) but then you need the bond/connection for them to fall back on when their attempts aren’t successful or they make mistakes, etc so they dont view it as a true failure and realize that part of growing up and being responsible is handling setbacks or mistakes and getting back up and trying again with support and love from family.
These are fantastic tips. I agree lines of communication need to always stay open and a parent needs to nurture the gifts a child has and not force a child to follow in the path Mom or Dad has laid out for him/her
I think your first tip, fostering independence, is so important! Kids need to know that their thoughts, feelings and beliefs matter!
Giving kids responsibility is probably one of the most important – and unfortunately it’s the thing we learned too late! LOL! Now that Angeline is 16, it’s almost impossible to get her to do chores.
These are great tips and things that I’m really struggling with right now as my older son starts to think about things like college. They grow up so fast and it’s so hard to let go but so important to prepare them!