Helping Kids Find Their Passion With A Growth Mindset
Teaching your child to find their passion with a growth mindset can instil a sense of confidence, perseverance and persistence in them that could help them develop a life-long passion.
When it comes to children, hobbies can be difficult. Kids often want to try a new one and give up an old one every week, so how can you help your child find the perfect hobby? And how can you help them stick with it?
What is a growth mindset?
A growth mindset is the simple belief that your abilities can develop. This means instilling in your child an understanding that practice can result in improvement, but you will need to manage their expectations when starting a new hobby.
Many children will give up something they enjoy because it initially seems too hard. Teaching a growth mindset can provide the patience necessary to help your child fall in love with a hobby.
How do I teach a growth mindset?
It is important to remove ideas such as 'I can't' or 'it's too hard'. Teach your kids that no one is born just being able to do things.
There are several growth mindset activities, books, and films that can help your little one with this concept.
Ask questions
After your child has finished with practice, class or what have you, it is a good idea to ask growth mindset questions. These include 'how did you challenge yourself?' and 'did you ask for help when you needed it?'.
These sorts of questions will encourage analytical thought and open dialogue with your child.
Encouragement ladder
Sit down with your little one and discuss the following with them. Ask what they think they can't do, lead this into why they think that, what they are afraid of, why they should try and finally how they will stop these challenges from getting in their way.
Laying it out in a linear fashion can help your child understand and work through their fear of failure.
How do growth mindsets apply to hobbies?
Encouragement is important, but so is understanding the difference between helpful and damaging encouragement. If your child is struggling but showing potential, nurture their hobby, help them with it, and let them know when they improve.
However, it's important not to be pushy. Ensure not to constantly praise your child and insist that they are improving, even if they aren't excelling or enjoying it.
Listen to your child - if they are not enjoying the hobby and aren't improving, allow them to move on to something new. It's just as important to teach your child that it's acceptable to try something else.
Action plan
If they decide they don't like a hobby and want to quit, that's OK. Go through an action plan with them so you can figure out together what the next step should be.
Get them to write down what happened, what their strategy was and what they were thinking at the time.
Then you can move into what happened when they failed, ask them to describe how they've felt since then and what they want to improve on next time; this will help them take ownership of their progress.
Next, it's time to work on your plan of action. What new strategies can they try, who can they ask for help and support, what's the new plan and how will they deal with thoughts that will stop them from trying?
Ultimately, you need to help your child understand that they will improve over time, and you should encourage them not to give up when things get hard.
Most importantly, give them enough time to experiment and grow. These and other activities can be the gateway to your little one finding the perfect hobby that becomes a life-long passion.
