Resilience is a crucial life skill that equips our young ones with the tools to navigate through challenges, setbacks, and adversity with courage and determination. By fostering resilience, we can empower our children to become confident individuals who are well-prepared to face the ever-changing world around them. At Glasshouse, we promote many activities and opportunities to build resilience including camps, excursions, incursions, and classroom activities and discussions. When running these events here are a few themes that we try to focus on and avoid!
Fostering Resilience:
- Encourage a growth mindset: Teach children that failures and setbacks are opportunities for learning and growth. Emphasize the importance of effort, perseverance, and the belief that abilities can be developed through dedication and practice.
- Promote problem-solving skills: Encourage children to think critically and develop problem-solving strategies. Guide them in breaking down challenges into smaller, manageable tasks, helping them understand that they have the capacity to overcome obstacles.
- Model resilience: Be a positive role model by demonstrating resilience in your own life. Share stories of how you have overcome challenges, highlighting the strategies and resilience skills you used. Children often learn by observing their parents’ behaviour and attitudes.
- Develop a support network: Foster strong relationships with family, friends, and the community. Encourage children to seek support from trusted individuals during difficult times. Feeling connected and supported builds resilience and a sense of belonging.
While it is important to focus on fostering resilience, we should also be aware of factors that may hinder its development. Here are a few things to avoid:
Hindering Resilience:
- Overprotection: Shielding children from all difficulties and challenges prevents them from developing problem-solving skills and resilience. Allow children to face age-appropriate challenges and provide support when needed, encouraging independence.
- Perfectionism and unrealistic expectations: Unrealistic expectations and a constant pursuit of perfection can create immense pressure on children. Encourage them to set realistic goals, embrace mistakes as learning opportunities, and celebrate progress.
- Lack of autonomy: Allowing children to make decisions and take responsibility for their actions helps build resilience. Give them opportunities to make age-appropriate choices, empowering them to learn from their experiences.
By promoting resilience in our children, we are equipping them with lifelong skills to overcome obstacles, build confidence, and thrive in an ever-changing world. Let’s work together to nurture resilient young minds, guiding them toward a future filled with resilience, determination, and success.
If you’re wanting to hear more about this topic, Maggie Dent has done a great podcast on ‘How to Raise a resilient child’ and you can find the link to that here.
Adrian Ford, Assistant Head of Primary – Upper Primary