Why I always make sure my kids know their strengths

Hi there!

So this post doesn’t fit in with my usual topics of play, sewing or #digifreeplay but it is about kids wellbeing, which I know you feel is just as important as I do.

Unless you have cloned your children, you’ll have ones like me who are different to each other (either a lot or just a little). We have 3 kids but 2 of them are close in age so have similar experiences and it could be soooo easy to compare them. One of them is very academic and the other, is less academic (still achieves at her expected grade level) but very creative and caring.

We always have discussions with both of them about their strengths and what makes them unique. We even talk about how even if you’re not naturally good at something, you can still enjoy doing it. For example the academic child still loves to draw and be creative and the creative one still loves to read and write.

So why is this all so important and why am I sharing it with you now?

Both of these kids of ours are in NAPLAN year levels and their parents reports came home this week. You can imagine that both of our children’s results looked very different. The academic one was also very keen to open the results to find out how they’d gone! (If you’re from outside of Australia, NAPLAN is a standardised test in Years 3, 5, 7 & 9, administered to all kids in Australia).

Because we had always had these conversations, we were able to talk to the creative, caring child about how this is one test, how they still did okay compared to the rest of Australia for that age group and how it doesn’t show on there artistic ability or how much you care for and look out for others.

Although NAPLAN should never be a life defining event, the way my children handled receiving their results shows me that they are confident young people in who they are and their uniqueness. I also quietly am excited that there is something within our parenting that we can be proud of. I will need to remind myself of this when we are having a trying day.

I’d love to hear from you, what makes your kids unique and how to you build this in them?


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