The tips presented here are for those who are working with one or more children, and/or teaching someone else's child. I have learned these things through experience, and they have helped tremendously!
1. Kids are very good at knowing whether you are telling the truth or not. Don't praise for the sake of praising, only praise for a job truly well done. But don't forget to praise the little steps i.e., having a good eye for threading the needle easily, good pedal control...
Encourage as much as possible. A fantastic rule of thumb that I have mentioned before, is two positives for every negative. Make sure these positives always come before the negative. A "negative" is something they need to work on, do better, or do again. Don't forget to always present those negatives in a positive way - meaning don't scold them.
As William Barclay states, "One of the highest duties is the duty of encouragement. It is easy to laugh at men's ideas; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the man (or woman) who speaks such a word". (The Letter to the Hebrews, The Daily Study Bible)
2. When working with more than one child, never make a group feel competitive. In other words, try to encourage and praise evenly. I always like to have each child demonstrate their strengths. I also encourage kids to teach kids. Both of these work great at building children's confidence, as long as, you are allowing every child to demonstrate and teach at the same rate.
3. Please include the parents. I know that some parents may not want to be included in the lessons however, encourage and let parents get involved.
As we have said before, kids spell Love, t-i-m-e. Most of the time, kids love having their parents work with them. The only time it can be difficult is when the parents want their kids to be able to master skills immediately - do it right the first time, or at least by the second time.
If this is the case, you have an opportunity to model an environment that embraces mistakes and learns from them. Look at it as, a chance to sow seeds in another family.
More often though, I have seen that children learn more and flourish, when the parents are with them.
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About Kristi Borchardt:
What Kristi wants to do, is share her journey in sewing; to help others know (with hindsight being 20/20) that the best way to learn is by doing. To learn MORE, from the “9 Secrets to Successfully Teach Your Child to Sew”, through free articles full of tips, encouragement, suggestions, and projects with step by step directions and lots of photographs, go to
www.sewingwithkids.com
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