26- Encourage your Child Today (Happy Turkey Day!)

Children are likely to live up to

what you believe in them.

~Lady Bird Johnson

The old adage is so true, when we believe in our kids, when we push them to do better they will be better.  I think that it is important to let your kids dream, let them dream big and educate them to know that it takes hard work but anything is possible. 

So many times you hear about grown ups who are not expected to be anything more than what they are.  A friend was struggling with her decisions to educate herself, to invest in herself to have a career, not just a job and was met at home with so much indecisiveness and discretion.  She was expected to stay in the job she had been in for ten years, to retire from that job, even in our weakened economy and she had nothing to fall back on.  The job was stale, the position expired and the clock, essentially...ticking.  Her push had to come from herself and even then, she was met with discouragement.  It was painful to watch.  

The thing is, she pushed herself when her family wouldn't and what she is doing is nothing short of her calling.  She is great at it and in the end I think she will be glad she chose the path that she was led to and proud of her accomplishments, as will her family, who can not be held at fault, they were just "get by" achievers.  They didn't try to push themselves or educate themselves to be better.

I will not parent in this way. I was not raised in this way, either.  I want my kids to do whatever they want, to push themselves and never settle. (I also want them to marry rich, but even then, there is a poisonous apple that can appear!)

My oldest wants to be a Singer...well.. I should say she wants to be Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande.  She knows the songs by heart, she tried to do the dance and she LOVES being on her stage, performing for her family.  She sings all the time, morning, noon and night she is always making up some song in her tiny voice and expelling it from her little self!

My 5 year old singing Ariana

Do I break her dreams?  

No.  If that is what she wants..guess what, she will have to work at it!  I will not stand in her way, I will push her when needed, encourage her, even at five, and enjoy her voice!

I think that I encourage regularly. I get excited and I mean genuinely excited and push when I am supposed to and help when they are struggling and still can not help themselves. I know that it is important in the grand scheme of L I F E.

Our Challenge for today is:

Encourage your Child Today.

From Google Search- Love this!

Do you think you can handle this one?  What is one thing you have encourage your child with today? 

I have helped...yes, even in this early hour..with my youngest and letting her Get Dressed by herself.  She tried to say she could not do it, which is her standby!  I told her she could, she just needed to believe she could and try.  She struggled and we sang..."Try...Try..again." (Thanks Nick Jr. Kai lan) It took some tough talk and some tears on her end but then guess  what happened?  

She DID IT!

She got dressed all by herself and did a GREAT job!  I was so proud of her and she pushed herself, proving to herself that she CAN do it!

With my Oldest, it is all about reading right now.  Last night we worked no Amelia Bedeila and it has some larger, more difficult words than the sight words that Biscuit is using (our usually night time read by my Five year old) and she struggled.  We sounded some out together, others she did by herself and she did great!  By the end of the book she was sounding out by herself and figuring out the words with no help.  

She smiled and I could tell, felt good!

It is little steps, but they mean something down the road, I know they do! 

Don't forget to Encourage your Kids! ;)

Just another crazy night at Gray Gables!

~Kel