1. Encouraging parents breed confident children.
I can't emphasise this enough to parents. Unfortunately, in Asian's culture, we do not grow up in such environment. The normal thing parents will do is to demean their child, tell them they are not good enough and expect the child to be motivated and strive to be better. This is a big NO NO! Children do not respond well to criticism, they will respond when they think they can do well! Be generous will your praise and they will soar:)
*On a side note, I believe in praise (not flatter nor lie about their strength). If you think that praising a child will make him/ her proud, then that's where you can teach them to be humble yet recognising his/her strength.
2. Effective parenting skill do not come with shouting, screaming or threatening.
I have many well behaved, cooperative, responsible students whose parents do not throw their temper on them, nor do I see shouting/ death stares/ demeaning words from their mum or dad. Those are the ones who will read story books while waiting for class (not playing games on iPad, I am perfectly fine with gadgets by the way, just not too much). From what I have observed, the parents read books together with them too instead of being busy on their gadgets, so I believe that children take after their parents.
3. Responsible parents, responsible children.
Parents who are responsible to check on their children's work, or monitor their practising sessions at home, produce responsible children in their weekly assignments.
4. Parents who spend quality time with their children, produce secure children.
I understand that most parents work very hard to provide for the family, giving them the best education and sending them to the best enrichment classes. By giving a little more time to attend their performances, guide them along in their learning journey and be interested in what they are doing will bring your children to another confidence level.
There was once I bumped into parents of my student (Youngest of the three children), so I thought they are out to bring her for another class, to my pleasant surprise, they are just out with her alone to spend quality time with her without the other two siblings:) A great example that I can learn from.
5. Words of affirmation will bring them far.
I have learnt this from one of my students' mum. Instead of giving her children gifts as rewards for good playing (on the piano); the mum passed me a notebook to write encouraging words to them. I think this is quite a good idea as they can read through when they have grown up. I have written a short letter to both the children (the mum has a son and daughter) in the notebook where I can be more expressive and detailed in my words of encouragement to them. Believe me, whenever you praise a child, he/she will have a higher tendency to respond positively.
I am still in the process of learning to be a better teacher. Feel free to comment and share with me more tips about nurturing children:)
