The first week of school has passed. Students, teachers, and parents - we all made it! How many of you had the opportunity to begin creating your vision and hear your child’s vision for the year? This past week I watched and listened as some of our students expressed their vision through words and art.
Throughout the week I had the opportunity to interact with students, teachers, administrators, and other members of our school team. Looking back at the week there is a common thread that I observed. Both adults and children had moments when they had to put themselves out there. Brene Brown, one of my favorite authors and researchers compares putting yourself out there to being in an arena, quoting a famous speech by Theodore Roosevelt. Some examples that come to mind of moments when we are in the arena are the principal speaking to the student body for the first time, a little girl asking for help from her teacher, a new student approaching a group of peers to join a game, a teacher asking a colleague for help with her lesson, or a parent sharing their concerns about their child’s learning challenges.
As a educator and a parent it is important that we prepare our children for moments when they will find themselves in the arena. Research shows that by putting themselves out there from a young age, children build confidence, learn self-regulation, and build important social skills.
Here are some ideas of how you can support your child when they put themselves out there:
Ask your child to order for themselves in a restaurant or order for their siblings at the ice cream shop.
Encourage your child to write their teacher an email (rather than you writing to their teacher on their behalf) which teaches them how to ask for help in a safe space.
Share with your child instances when you have put yourself out there. As a mom it could be serving a new dish to guests on a holiday, standing in the front or the back of a fitness class, or initiating a conversation with unfamiliar people at a party. Children need to know that we understand how they feel because it happens to us too.
Ask your child to smile at someone they meet for the first time.
Open up a conversation with your child about the first weeks of school - What are they comfortable doing? What makes them feel uncomfortable?
Rosh Hashanah is around the corner. On Rosh Hashanah we read about three prominent women in the Torah - Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah. All three could not bear children, yet Hashem created them anew and gave them the ability to bear children. A lesson that we learn can from this is that we need to instill in our children that anything is possible if they try. Each time we try something new we put ourselves out there. We may be successful on the first try and we may not. My goal is to encourage my team, students, and parents to try new things knowing that it may not go exactly as they hope.
Have a great week!
Beth
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