How to truly help your child be self-rooted

When do children enter teenage years? When their ages end in the classic “teen”? Think again! If pre-teen syndrome is a phenomenon, than teenagers are definitely an age before the teen suffix. The point being made here, is that the children we seem to think, will remain so, for a long time, are actually rapidly evolving into youth. The rules of childhood are out by now. Be ready, the fear of the unknown will gradually seep into your days and nights, as your growing child increasingly becomes an alien you don’t know. 

Maybe things are not drastic (yet) for you, but teenage mood swings, loss of values, inability to connect choice with consequence is just a notch away from manifestation. Your child who couldn’t bear to be without you cannot be seen twenty feet around you! In this time of storm and fury, child on to your child, no matter what. Connect with your child using these five psychological aspects. Help your child stay grounded and rooted to themselves – to the values of your culture and beliefs.

1. Morality and Self-Control

Children learn at six or seven that stealing is wrong and has consequences. Their sense of morality is established during these years. When ethics and moral get more complex in teens, kids undergo rage and rebellion. They experience conflict when feel a wrong action was justified: for example stealing medicine by a poor man for his sick child. At this time, talk to children about religious values. Tell them tales of valor and tales with moral lines. Teach them mindfulness and self-control no matter how long it takes for them to imbibe these values. Never give up. Discipline your child with love and generosity. Loss of privilege will work only so many times. What works is the belief that the child is loved regardless of their behavior.

2. Their Relationship with You

Help your child have a healthy self-image. Do you over criticize your children? Do they believe you love them? How do they think of you perceiving them? It doesn’t matter what you think of your children. What matters is what you show them. Let them know you are proud of them. They hear you more than you think they do. Make it clear in your actions and words how much you love them. Be verbal about your love for your child. Let them know that you have high expectations from them. And they don’t have to earn your love to live up to those expectations. Love is unconditional. You are not their boss, but their guardian. As parents, we tend to boss our children, which later on builds a resentful relationship.

3. Forming a Self-Concept

Identity is being formed during the pre-teen years. Children weigh themselves in terms of popularity in school, humor, talent and performance in multiple areas. Help your child recognize their strengths. Children compare themselves in appearance and school work and many other activities in more ways than parents notice. Lead them into self-acceptance. Guide them towards their potentials that only you can recognize best as a parent.

4. Relationships with Friends

This is the time for friendships, social circles, groups and inevitably peer-pressure. Acknowledge the nature of the friendships becoming deeper and more attached. Be prepared when they feel frustrated and left out. Teach to make the right choices when making friends. Teach then the deteriorating effects of bad – character individuals in their lives. Talk about situations in which they can respond in a healthy way to bullying, drug abuse and other current problems face by teens.

5. Succeeding in School

As parents, we want all our children to succeed in school with flying colors. While it may not be possible in all your children, know that comparison in academics can have a great impact on children. The pressures of homework, teachers, general rules, athletics, and the social scene have the potential to exert a lot of pressure. School and grades will continue to be a long-lasting part of your child’s life, so it is important to help them see education in a healthy way. Grades do not define them as a human being, and the most important thing in life is not how well they do on a project. However, this is also an opportunity to teach good work ethic, and to teach them the value of hard work and team spirit. Success lies in the quality of choices made in the journey and not the quantity of points made by the destination.

Art for troubled Teenagers

Troubled teenagers are sadly becoming a world-wide statistic. We watch teens in news and we read about them in newspapers. The epidemics of bad behavioral teen is unusually new in our times. If one suggestion to counteract this rapidly growing issue is to be made, it is simple and practical: adopting art outlets for troubled (or at-risk) teenagers.

Does your teen lash out? Has surprising bouts of anger that borders on rage? Do they seem to avoid you? Do they seem sad and desolate at times?

Have they stopped talking to you lately?

While this may a tough time in parenting for you, do not lose heart. Help yourself and your teen through the power of art classes. Let us convince you through published research results on teens working their way to success through engaging art classes. These studies show that teens who are encouraged to adopt art activities experience:

·        better academic results,

·        greater likelihood of college enrollment,

·        increased self-esteem and resiliency,

·        better workforce opportunities,

·        improved emotional intelligence, and

·        more civic engagement, such as voting and volunteering.

 Art can truly be an inspiration to youth. The results speak for themselves. In todays highly urbanized, nuclear and double income families, art can provide a balm to those rough and sharp edges in relationships. Here are some of the benefits to teens who emerged as successful individuals through art activities:

Self-Expression. Expressing ourselves in constructive ways is a learned skill. We all know at least one person in our life who isn’t great at controlling their anger – perhaps a coworker, friend or neighbor calls people names or slams doors when they don’t get their way. To become successful adults, we must learn to channel our frustrations in a positive way. The arts open the door to self-reflection and self-expression. Learning to communicate through dancing, drawing, writing, or other arts offers a constructive method for a teen to share his/her identity or wrestling with difficult questions.

Stress Relief. Many artistic activities take place in a relaxing environment and offer constructive and safe methods of communicating. Troubled teens are under an enormous amount of stress, and many times, they are not taught how to manage it. In an increasingly complex and pressure-oriented world, teens need positive coping skills. The more our community’s youth are able to find positive ways to deal with stress, the better off we all are. Studies have proven that the arts can be great stress-relievers and coping mechanisms. Examples include listening to music, dancing, drawing, writing in a journal, painting, or playing a musical instrument. An arts program can open the door to positive stress management.

Real-World Skills. Many artistic activities, such as journalism or photography, teach real-world skills, which can lead to lifelong interests, even careers. They help kids explore their physical, creative, and social potential and find out where their interests may lie.

Creativity. Artistic programs can provide an outlet for creativity and problem-solving and encourage a youth’s natural curiosity and interests. The arts provide effective, engaging and creative methods of mental, emotional and physical stimulation, which encourages the overall creative thinking process.Try our CREATIVE GENIUS PROGRAM here.

Self-Confidence. For a teen who is not gifted academically, the chance to excel in the arts can make a huge difference in their self-esteem. Additionally, when children learn new skills and engage in social activities, they become more self-confident. Learning social skills, like cooperation, negotiation, and conflict resolution, in a fun and relaxed environment, will help them interact appropriately with others – a skill valuable in all aspects of life, from home life to the workplace.

Art Programs

 The most effective arts programs for youth contain activities that are designed to provide opportunities for youth to learn new skills, recognize individual youth’s efforts, and reduce the influence of risk factors. These programs become a safe haven for a teen. Successful programs emphasize dynamic teaching tactics such as hands-on learning, apprentice relationships, and the use of technology. They also usually culminate in a public performance or exhibition in an effort to build participants’ self-esteem through public recognition.

WE STRIVE TO NURTURE THE BEST IN YOU. 

5 Reasons Why Children Miss out on Remaining an Artist they all are Born as?

An amazing phenomenon has been observed since the 1930. It is called the Flynn Effect. It is a scientific observation on increasing IQ scores across generations. We are, in fact, smarter than our grandparents and parents! It’s a little surprise. Look around you. Can you identify the many information and sensory enrichment sources that enhance our knowledge and decision making capacity? Did these sources exist when grandma was eight years old? So that explains the increasing figures! 

The ancient “nature Vs nurture” battle in human breeding. Generations get smarter with time. Before you add a chip on your shoulder, just hold the thought. The next generations however have declined in terms of creative performance, by at least 10 points! Now that’s some generation gap not to brag about. Your child is born a creative genius. But you (yes you!) have been over-doing certain actions that kills their creativity.

 Watch out and tell us if you can relate:

Rewards: Why have we shifted the locus of motivation from intrinsic to extrinsic? By rewarding our children with stars, stickers, badges and even sweets we are training them to work the “right” amount! A kids will put in only that much effort that is needed to win a sticker! Sometimes we even make these stickers too easy to achieve! We want creativity boosters not inhibitors. We need to develop the love of their creation not the stickers!

Shadowing: Hovering on your child while they work is another no-no. Always sitting with them and directing their projects makes them feel insufficient or ill-equipped to run their own affairs. Let them be. As long as their working environment is safe, let them pursue their creative ride alone. Risk taking is the precursor to confidence in capabilities. Mistakes are the most valuable part of the learning process. Let them make theirs!

 

 The right answer: Since when is the world black or white? We know as adults, life usually deals in the grey area. Decisions are a mix of rights and wrong, completely contingent on the situation. Creativity is boosted when a problem has multiple solutions! There is no one correct or wrong answer!

Let them get bored: A bored afternoon is the most productive afternoon! After the whining has subsided, wait for the ideas! Don’t be afraid of the boredom. Simply turn off the TV and force your kids to think of ideas to keep them engaged and productive.

Some words of wisdom:

Creativity is boosted when things are done in pursuit to the proposed solutions, not perfection! Each mistake stimulates the imagination to yield more creative ideas. When it comes to drawing, we as parents need to be even more careful.  

What should parents do? According Ryan Woodward:

Tell them how happy you are to see them drawing.

Tell them how much you love to see their drawings and how it makes you feel.

Encourage them to keep drawing what they love to draw.

Above everything, teach them to continue to LOVE to draw. 

Do not talk about getting better.  That talk will fill them with anxiety that they have to start to meet a social standard of good art.  

And that unrealistic standard frequently turns to fear of art and ultimately quitting art.

If this love for drawing is strongly rooted in them at a young age, then there is nothing that will stop their greatness.  They will improve at an accelerated rate because they will still love the act of drawing.  They will stretch their growth beyond the course curriculum because every assignment will be a labor of love, and personal joy, not a grade.  Their careers will find them and their love for the work will expand their capacity for creativity.  They will continue to seek for personal wonder and awe in their work for the rest of their lives and not the paycheck or the pat on the back.  Ultimately, they will be much more happy with their lives. ~ Ryan Woodward

Good luck parents, seems like you have your child’s creativity at your fingertips!