It’s imperative for a healthy development in children that parents or guardians provide them with a supportive environment. All children are different and they need appropriate conditions to grow like plants, for example – each species has special climate conditions in which they will grow to its full potential.
However, there are aspects you can and should cover and adopt methods within their bounds to your child’s unique needs. Parents do have the strongest influence on their child’s character growth – being the first and the strongest figures in a child’s life, their presence or the lack of it will form a child’s future.
Therefore, you should be included in every sphere of your child’s learning about the world around them. In order to grow up into strong healthy individuals, children need to be directed in the right way and with effective stimuli.
Physical Needs
One obvious fact needs to be emphasized for starters – children are young people and you shouldn’t talk to them like they’re any less and patronize them constantly. The only difference between you and them is that they need a guardian to teach and nurture them.
The first thing you should do when it comes to stimulating your child’s mind is to create the right conditions. For your child to be able to concentrate and be at all willing to learn, you need to take care of their physical and physiological needs, so snacks and bathroom first, studying later.
Learn & Play
Try to go back to your childhood and remember your own reactions when you have been forced to do something – or simply ask your parents. No matter if it’s a particular activity or a type of food in question, I’m sure that your conclusion will be the same – you started developing a strong aversion to that certain object or habit.
Being involved in your child’s education doesn’t mean you should come up with a schedule and force your child to stick to it. Young people gather knowledge through play, and depending on their age you should provide them with appropriate tools (read: toys) and study buddies (read: playdates) and thus subtly stimulate them to learn.
Indulge Their Curiosity
Most parents make a very serious mistake of imagining what their child will do when they grow up and what characteristic they will have. Once again I must ask you to retrace your steps and remember your own thoughts when your parents talked to you about the future – I’m sure they wanted you to be a lawyer or a doctor.
One of the preconditions for your child to be mentally healthy is that you allow them to have their freedom and be curios. Curiosity is underrated and I personally believe that too many grownups buried it in their childhood and that is one certain way to suffocate creativity. Basically, there’s not much to do here but allowing your children to explore and discover.
Nurture Your Child’s Talents
This is a follow up to enabling your kids to explore, because that is one proven way for them to manifest their talents. Some people go through life without even knowing what they are good at and simply live like ghosts, and I’m sure this isn’t something you want for your baby.
Providing them with a choice and allowing them to try out many different things will eventually lead to your children finding out about their skills and talents and actually enjoying in those activities. Knowing what you’re good at is a great advantage while growing up – it’s an amazing confidence boost, for starters.
Entertainment Selection (music, books, shows)
I personally believe that children are not supposed to make their own selection of entertainment because that is one of the most important factors that affect one’s character development. Naturally, you shouldn’t brainwash them and have them set down in front of a TV and they should have a choice, but within approved borders you have previously set.
My suggestion is to subtly educate your child with the use of various softwares. There are many game-like apps for children that actually teach them valuable lessons, so you should do some browsing and find out more about educational software. The future of teaching is in technology – it’s an interactive, visual and interesting way to study – so why not start now.
The Touch of Nature
Unfortunately, this part isn’t given enough attention. A few young people feel comfortable in nature, when camping for example, while others can’t stop using their smartphones to learn how to start a fire or simply hanging out on social platforms because of a lack of interest.
Just regular picnics will do here, for starters. Spending time in nature is healthy for your serenity of your child’s mind and it’s never too early to learn about the environment, all its secrets and ways to protect it.
Emotional Support
Children look up to you and for almost everything they do, kids do keep track of your reactions. So, providing everything above for the development of their mind would be pretty much pointless if you’re not there for them every step of the way.
Lack of emotional stimuli and support will generally lead to the development of insecurities and all sorts of confidence issues that will leave a permanent stain on their character. It’s not necessary to just be there and overlook everything your child does, you need to communicate with them and be involved.
Molding a young mind is a full-time job, and creating an independent person that’s clever and capable is a complex task. It’s a responsibility that shouldn’t be taken lightly, but on the other hand, it’s something you can always learn. One more thing – don’t forget to have fun along the way!