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Some Important Things for Parents to do to Raise Successful Children

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Dedicate your children to God and point them in the way that they should go, and the values they’ve learned from you will be with them for life.
Proverbs 22:6 (TPT)

 

During these days of quarantine due to the Coronavirus pandemic, parents are staying home with their children.  With a growing body of information filled with all kinds of recommendations of things that parents should do with their children, how can parents decide on what are the most important?  Although this is a Christian blog, I will concentrate today on what the world of science promotes. 

Here are some of the best recommendations:

  1. Read with and to your children.  Importantly, when reading a book, take your time and make it exciting.  Change your voice depending on the characters.  Talk with your children about the plot.  Look at the pictures.  As a children’s author, I know that pictures in a book are very important so don’t just read the book quickly with a monotonous voice and move on.

  2. Have them do chores to build a work ethic. Once a task is assigned, monitor them and explain to them how to do it better.  Don’t nag and don’t accept complaints from them.  Make sure that they follow through.

  3. Have dinner together regularly as a family.  Studies have shown that children who have dinner with their families have lower substance abuse, depression and pregnancy issues and do better in school.  Children want to be loved and one way to show them love is to spend time together as a family.

  4. Limit the use of mobile devices and screen time, especially for younger children.  Too much screen time has been shown to negatively affect children.  Again, it’s important for you to monitor their activities and ensure that they are abiding by the rules.

  5. Praise your children properly.  Don’t praise them for their innate abilities – example: “You aced that exam because you are so smart!”  Instead, praise them for their effort – example: “You aced the exam because you really studied hard and put a lot of effort into your work.”  With the former praise example, there is truly nothing they can do about improving as they will think that they are “naturally smart”.  In the latter example, they learn that their success depends on their positive efforts.

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