Your child’s success doesn’t just depend on classroom education and the skills he has learned from school. If you want to raise a good child, one who’s going to be a successful adult someday, you have to have active participation in his life.
What makes a successful adult?
According to a research done by Google on successful employees and skills that matter, it’s not the STEM skills that make someone successful but the soft skills.
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) skills are skills learned in school. People who had tertiary-level education are expected to be proficient in these skills. The more competent you are in these areas, the higher your success rate.
But this isn’t the case, Google stated in their research. Their researchers found that successful employees are highly skilled in the soft skills. These include communication and listening skills as well as empathy and insight into what other people think and feel. Successful people, the study found, are also great coaches and are supportive of their colleagues. They are also critical thinkers, are able to think outside the box and make connections across different and complex ideas, and are great problem solvers.
Surprisingly, soft skills aren’t learned in school. They are learned at home and their development starts in early childhood.
What are the factors that can make a child a successful adult?
Technology, especially gadgets and internet, may be a big help to most parents. It can keep a child entertained for hours especially when we’re busy. However, they can also be very detrimental to our child’s emotional and social growth.
As mentioned earlier, if you want to raise a successful child, you have to have an active participation in his life. Your role as a parent will help them develop the soft skills they need to become a successful adult.
Below are some of the things you need to do to help them develop their soft skills:
- Give them chores. Chores teach them teamwork, cooperation, responsibility, and accountability. They will learn the value of a struggle and become more empathetic toward people because they know how it is to struggle. Chores also teach them how to be independent.
- Teach them social and emotional skills. Play silly games with them; talk with them no matter how silly the topic may be; and listen to them. These teach them communication skills, empathy, and how to listen to others. Teach them the value of following rules and directions, the importance of personal space, and the necessity of staying calm. Let them play with other children, too, so they learn how to initiate conversations.
- Provide them a healthy and happy environment. Children who have a loving and supportive family and enjoy a healthy relationship with each other grow up to be more successful than those who grew up in a stressful home. These teach them empathy and improve their social and emotional skills.
- Teach them the value of education and going to college. Parents who had higher educational levels tend to raise children who will attain the same. In fact, one study revealed that the parents’ high expectations of their children have a huge impact on their accomplishments. So if you want your child to finish college, for example, then he will live up to your expectations.
Parenting and the Montessori Education
Your children will spend most of their time in school, so choosing a good school is crucial. You want one that will continue and even enhance what your child is learning from home.
Your local Montessori school is your child’s second home. In addition to the usual lessons they learn in the classroom, they also get to enjoy activities and tasks geared towards developing not only their soft skills but a healthy self-esteem as well.
Some of these activities include the use of toys such as building blocks, puzzles, and stacking games. Understanding how these toys work helps the children develop their math and analytical skills. Indoor games like word games and board games help them develop reading and comprehension skills. There are group games, too, all of which teach the children about following rules, teamwork, cooperation, and being a good sport.
The children are also given simple and age-appropriate tasks such as putting toys and books back in their proper places and taking care of themselves (brushing their teeth after a meal). These “chores” help them develop independence, discipline, and self-control.
Finally, Montessori education allows the children to work on their tasks at their own pace without pressure from their teachers and classmates. This boosts not only their creativity but self-esteem as well. Montessori education is flexible and adaptable, giving the teachers the ability to teach their students on a one-to-one basis based on the children’s own individual needs.
To be successful as an adult, a child has to learn soft skills which are taught at home and continued in school. Montessori education makes sure that your children develop a good foundation for both soft and academic skills.
If you want to know more about Montessori education, you may visit the Naga City Montessori School at Mayon Avenue, Naga City on May 26, 2018 at 8:00 am to 5:00 pm for an open-house event. You may also contact them at (054) 473 8399 or like their page and message them at https://www.facebook.com/nagacitymontessori.