PARENTS: GIVE YOUR STUDENTS A LOVING BOOST THIS SUMMER — THEY NEED YOUR SUPPORT MORE THAN EVER

By Terry Carter, RTT, CHYP
Founder of WorldWellnessToday.com, the holistic life and healing site

The Covid Crisis in education may have ended this spring. But the effects of remote classes, growing responsibilities for teachers, administrators, contact tracing and more have diminished the educational progress.

Many suggest students should repeat their previous grade or be held back because very little new material was absorbed and retained in the school year from 2020-21.

Students and teachers feel as if nothing was learned in 2020 due to the pandemic-inspired, education disruption.

How can parents save the day? It is much more than catching up with classwork, concepts with a tutor or counselor.

Parents can become their child’s hero by empowering to form a partnership with our brain, improving self-confidence, motivation, embracing excellence academically and in extracurricular activities. Collaborating with your mind transforms lives.

The answers can vary somewhat depending on students, however, adding hours of study, rehashing facts and figures from last year is not the first and only step for parents. Some years ago, that may have been the only strategy to help.

This summer parents can lead their child back to their passion, brilliance and thriving again. Through encouragement and support, parents are building our children’s self-confidence, resilience and interests to engage life, sports and education fully once again.

Many young children and teens are responding to the pandemic by isolating themselves through depression, profound sadness, addiction

All of us suffered and are still recovering from the emotional, financial stress of the pandemic, remote classes, internet access, having enough PCs/tablets for our children, shortages of patience, time, attention and more.

Here are 3 Key Steps Toward Healthier, Happier Children Who Excel and Succeed

1. Your mind does exactly what it thinks you want it to do. If your child is not getting the expected results, their mind could be confused with the self-talk happening internally. The Solution? Begin to update that process with specific language like “I want to…” or “I am choosing to…” to avoid distractions, disconnection and procrastination. Communicate to your mind using very detailed, precise and positive wording. This is powerful and upgrades moods and chemicals naturally released in the body.

2. The mind is hard-wired to move toward pleasure and away from pain. This primary survival mindset is not to make life easier, but to ensure we live another day. When children link pain or illness with school/remote learning, the mind locks on to moving away from that habit. The self-talk of “I am dreading writing this paper because sitting here for hours drains. I am afraid of failing this class” creates an imaginary pain point, and the mind responds by pushing away from the table of education. The Solution? You choose what you link to pain or pleasure. And if you link writing to tremendous creativity and joy, then your focus and results will improve significantly. Try saying “I love writing or history. They are a challenge, but I have tremendous coping skills and love sharpening my brain because it shows what I have learned.”

3. Your mind understands how you you feel about something comes down to two things: The pictures you make in your mind and the words you say to yourself. The inner voice dialog we all use is conducted by our thoughts. To change the dialog, you have to change your mind, and that can be done powerfully by changing the words you choose to say and the mental images you choose to focus on.

These tips are much more than positive thinking. This is internally re-wiring your brain for success by communicating more effectively with purpose. These steps can help a student, child or adult to think better, feel better and improve their success rate with learned skills.

To get the best results with this exercise, close your eyes and relax. Love yourself enough to embrace the steps fully in trust and hope. As you finish, imagine who you want to be when you open your eyes.

Don’t just see that smart, happy, confident student in your mind, also hear him/her giving perfect answers, feel their confidence in helping others, touch the genius within you and that a permanent part of you. Also touch a part of the life of the student you envision, whether picking up a perfect test paper result in your hardest class or receiving a full scholarship from your first college choice.

•••For more study tips and 1-on-1 training to unleash your academic potential, call 281.541.4983 or book a free consultation with WorldWellnessToday.com•••

HOW TO SAVE YOUR CHILD’S SELF-ESTEEM

By Terry Carter, RTT, CHYP
Founder of WorldWellnessToday.com

Assuming your child is relatively healthy, they progress through their first six years acting like sponge and a mirror.

By that, I mean their brainwaves operate in a low, meditative state, allowing them to learn words, actions and habits quickly. Therefore each word you and your family speak will become part of your offspring.

Then around 18-36 months, toddlers, who are in high learning mode, begin to mirror what they have learned back to their parents.

This is typically when parents realize that a few inappropriate words — like No — are coming back to haunt them. Oddly this is a transition point where children are becoming more conscious-minded around age two.

Recently I addressed a hectic request for help from a parent whose 2-year-old son said No to every question and every invitation. Between ages two-three and six-seven years old, children operate in the Theta Stage, which is a creative, dreaming and hypnotic suggestible brain state.

Logical reasoning is typically missing here, however, questions are plentiful, as you may have noticed with your children. Children 7-12 years old upgrade to Alpha brainwaves and develop logical thought and full consciousness there although it is a calm, relaxed state. Beta is the next brainwave state and is mostly commonly associated with adults during their daily activities.

Knowing that children soak in every word, gesture and attitude (thought) is helpful for parents. Most parents, myself included some 25-30 years ago, believed that children did not perceive fine nuances in mood or heard every word in the home.

Now science has concluded that moods are like an aura around each of us, and someone who is scared, upset or worried can affect their infants and children dramatically.

To address the father of the 2-year-old boy saying No all day, it is routine for all children to overuse words as they learn them and find a proper context for use. That and the common use of No in family language explains why the word exasperates parents once a child discovers it.

Small children do not enter life with anger, rebellion or malice. Therefore parents need not worry about a two year old rejecting them with the word No. Children live for love and acceptance; they know nothing else until it is displayed for them to learn by family or friends.

After all, most 4-6 year olds are caught using inappropriate language before they reach kindergarten. A common phrase I’ve heard recently is “pee-pee head. By viewing the word combination as innocent and random, ignoring the language is smart advice for parents. If you take offense and confront the child or discipline, you reinforce the importance of the wording.

It’s important to remember that this is not a 16-year-old rebel without a cause threatening your life. It’s your beloved two year old who only knows a 30-200 words — and is testing them out to see if the context (definitions) they believe in are correct or not.

If you are inclined to dive into the discipline closet and respond emotionally to such language at the tender ages of 0-6 years, please set back and ask yourself why this raises your emotional ire. Quite a few parents were raised in a more physically-disciplined age.

Fear is not seen as a useful tool at home or in business today, except in rare cases where imminent danger to life is at stake. Fear or scare tactics are still fairly common, but they create more adversity and trauma for child. And that trauma can create long-term issues mentally and physically.

The best recommendation for any child includes an unconditional loving environment that inspires hope and patience:

• For older children, encourage open discussions where judgement is minimized.
• For younger kids, show gratitude, love and compassion when they learn a new skill or add words to their vocabulary. Fine-tuning the vocabulary can happen in the future.
• Consistent encouragement, appreciation, acceptance
• Be aware that how you introduce a lesson or new idea will determine whether the child eventually embraces parts of life like school math, english or history.

I hope these steps help you to encourage your children to move forward with a happy, willing desire to learn and share knowledge with family and friends.

Please remember that the mind learns by repetition, but the mind cannot learn effectively when it is under stress/anxiety. The happier, more relaxed and joyful your home is, the better it will be enjoyed by everyone.

And don’t be surprised if even the infants begin to be happier you consciously reduce anxiety in your home. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact me at WorldWellnessToday.com. Make today great!