Is Your Child’s Behaviour At (Home) School Holding Them Back From Reaching Their Potential?
I wrote this blog while life was still (pretty much) normal! Our kids were at school and we were witnesses to our children’s behaviour only through the eyes of their teacher.
Now, of course, for homeschooling parents, many of us are directly observing how our children are handling their lessons. The way they relate to their peers is now how they relate to their siblings, parents or carers.
This is an opportunity for us to take steps, as necessary, to make sure that our kids are heading down the right path to adulthood. I hope it provides you with a checklist of things to consider that make the coming weeks really positive for all of us, despite the challenges.
Sometimes, an inability to sit still for long enough to listen to a teacher set out a list of instructions means that an answer doesn’t reflect the question and a student doesn’t make the grade.
Difficulty taking turns in conversation, and constantly interrupting the speaker, means that maintaining friendships can be difficult and your child is once again sitting alone in the playground.
Big emotions and worries mean that relatively small inconveniences trigger an exhausting meltdown as you’re trying to get out of the door.
Each one of these challenges is manageable on its own, occasionally. But when it’s part of everyday life, a child quickly loses confidence and can easily become withdrawn and uncommunicative, or mask feelings of insecurity with bravado.
As parents, we understand that our role is to raise children who live to their potential, and contribute to making the world a better place.
There are lots of different ways we can help make things better. Thoughtful, encouraging parenting that is consistent and firm helps children feel ‘seen’ and secure.
Time spent outside and physical activity help increase levels of brain chemicals to improve focus and attention, as well as ‘feel good’ endorphins. The effects can last for hours.
A diet rich in nutrients nourishes microbes in the gut, which can have a profound effect on behaviour. Thanks to emerging research on the gut-brain axis, we know that there are as many neurons in the human gut as in a cat’s brain! A diversity of these microbes has been shown to improve depression and anxiety in humans in recent trials (https://cleverguts.com/)
But we know how hard it is to eat the diversity of nutrient-rich foods to support your microbiome. It’s even more of a challenge when your kids turn their noses up at anything that isn’t white and sweet (trust me, you’re not alone).
That’s where we can help. Over the coming months, we’ll send through some great cooking hacks that have worked for our family to make our food healthy and tasty (and quick to prepare).
Together with achieve+ junior, our evidence-based, high quality nutrition drink powder for kids, we want you to have peace of mind knowing that you are doing all you can to nourish your child to thrive. Don’t miss out on our updates: sign up for our newsletter here