Everyone is born with a special skill, interest, or passion. While your little one may be too young to understand or appreciate what they’re good or passionate about, it’s your responsibility as the parent or guardian to help them discover and explore them. This way, your child will be able to channel their energy into activities they’re naturally good at. Why is this so important? Some research has shown that regardless of the interest involved, a child is more likely to do well in academics and other areas of their lives they’re passionate about.
Encouraging them to work on their passions can positively impact their cognitive skills, which will reflect on their academics. Also, the earlier a child learns to identify their passions and explore what they’re naturally good at, the easier it becomes to carve a career path they would enjoy. So, do you wonder if your kids have any talent or are passionate about something? Here are a few creative ways to help them discover and explore
Foster their natural talents
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As mentioned earlier, everyone is born with a talent or unique ability. However, you might not be able to tell until your child is a little older. But once you notice your little one is a natural at something, it’s important to help them nurture those innate gifts. Talents need to be supported, improved, and celebrated. Even if your little one shows no passion for their natural talent, you’ll be able to observe how effortlessly they connect to other interests. This can guide them towards their passion.
While fostering their natural talent, you should also be engaged in activities surrounding their talents. You don’t have to be good at what they do, but find fun ways to show that they can share their talents with you. For example, if your child loves music or enjoys playing instruments, try creating a fun music band with them. Of course, your singing may be terrible and your playing skills embarrassing, but your interest is all they’ll need to feel supported. You can even throw in a couple of music puns as jokes behind the dinner table to put a smile on your child’s face and make them excited to talk about it with you.
Observe them in their solitude
The things your child loves to do when they’re alone can be a good indicator of where their passion lies, especially with older kids. This can usually be seen when they are away from distractions such as gaming consoles, their phones, or watching TV. During such times, you may notice your child reading, writing, acting out imaginative scenes, playing a musical instrument, or coming up with a new invention. Therefore, you should consider leaving your child in periodic states of boredom without any of the above distractions and find out what interests they’ll gravitate towards to kill the boredom. Next, consider supporting them in doing activities related to those interests. For example, if you realize your child loves to read comic books or draw comic characters, challenge them to develop and draw a comic character of their own, and explain that character to you. Not only will this help them grow their interest, but you’ll also be helping them to explore something they’re passionate about.
However, when doing so, it is important to try finding a way to observe your child subtly without appearing to be eavesdropping or spying on them. This would only make them uncomfortable and prevent them from opening up to you.
Avoid putting pressure on your child
As mentioned earlier, the fact that a child is talented at something does not mean they will develop a natural passion for it. So, avoid putting pressure on your kid to be passionate about something they aren’t. Also, do your best not to force your passions onto your child. More often than not, some parents force their kids to live the dreams they failed to live when they were younger. The truth is, doing that to your child would only make them unhappy in the long run.
It is important to allow your child to explore themselves to make their own decisions. You can only offer guidance along the way. Don’t let them feel pressured into doing what makes you happy. By pushing them to do things they have no interest in, you’ll only cause them to take a different path and suffer from the effects of such pressure.
Celebrate different passions and diversity in your home
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If you have more than one child, you probably know how different each child can be. The last thing you want to do is make every child tow the same line in terms of interest and passion just to follow your footsteps. As indicated in the previous point, you don’t want to put pressure on any child to be or chase something they don’t want. One way you can avoid doing that is by celebrating diversity in your home and supporting different passions. Every child has a different personality. Each personality can and should contribute something different. For example, just because you love sports (and your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were accomplished sportspeople) does not mean all your children would or should be interested in sports. Rather, enjoy the varying tastes of your children and support each child equally. After all, variety, they say, is the spice of life.
Encourage a love for sports
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Before you get it twisted, encouraging a love for sports is not the same as pushing your child to become a sports person. Plus, there are several ways a child can build a love for sports without actually playing them. For example, if your child loves to read or write, they may enjoy reading or writing about sports. Or, if your little one loves to take pictures, why not take them to a game to take some pictures? They could develop a passion for photography through this. But why sports? Sports offer numerous opportunities for children to develop their passion at a young age. Additionally, sports have been proven to be great brain food for kids, offering them numerous mental benefits. This can help make it easier for a child to identify things they’re passionate about.
Engage them to partake in DIY activities
DIY activities are excellent ways to help children explore their raw talents and creativity. Fun arts and crafts activities like painting, sculpturing, building little projects like Lego architecture, knitting, gardening, and so on can help foster a child’s natural interests. Of course, you cannot expect them to be good at these activities, but DIY projects can help children brew their creative juices and develop their critical thinking capabilities. Another great thing about this is that you spend quality time bonding with your little ones as you help them discover their talent. That will make you a massive influence in their lives. Once you help them identify DIY activities they love, you can find hobbies, clubs, classes, or resources to help them improve and learn more.
Ask them questions and embrace their ideas
Asking your child for their perspective on different things can give you an idea of what interests them. It also helps the child to develop critical and creative thinking in the process. Encourage them to share their ideas on simple solutions at home, about movies, books, food, and even school work. If you don’t like their ideas, tell them positively or constructively to avoid discouraging them from sharing their ideas in the future. Doing this can help your child find new ways of solving things. The more you bounce ideas off each other, the more you guide your child towards the ideas they’re passionate about. For example, asking your child’s ideas for a new decor theme for your home can help them delve into designing talents they didn’t know they had. Since children have infinite imagination, you never know how embracing their ideas will spark a passion that could define a career for them.
Help them with their homework
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Passions come in various forms through different avenues. Helping your child with homework can help them discover a less traditional passion. For many people chasing a passion means chasing dreams like a successful music career, sports, entrepreneurship, etc. But what if your child has a hidden talent in math, science, or literature? Or what if your child enjoys doing homework projects that allow them to think outside the box and be creative? Helping your child with homework can help you discover some of these potentials. You never know; your little one could have the next best seller sleeping inside of them. Helping them with a creative school project can also lead to your child finding an interest in scientific inventions. So, try showing more interest in your child’s homework beyond simply asking them if they’ve done it. Give them all the help they need. Not only will you be helping improve their academics, but you could also be helping them to discover a passion.
