TEACHING CHILDREN HOW TO OVERCOME ADVERSITIES WHILE DISCOVERING LIFE SKILLS

Shortly, after my kid returned home from her first year of college, a surprising thing happened…

“Mom and Dad I have something to tell you,” – now after holding our breath bracing for the worst – the words that every parent who believe sin tough love hopes to hear is – “I didn’t understand why you were so tough on me, but now I want to say…Thanks.”

And while there isn’t a set recipe for raising successful children, teaching your child life skills is not only important for self-care and sufficiency— it also allows them to feel empowered.

All parents want their child/children to do well in school, stay out of trouble and go on to do amazing things as adults but, much of it comes down to “6574 days of parenting.”

That is the number of days before your loved ones celebrate their18th birthday. Are you preparing your child to be dependent or independent?

“The great mistake good parents make is doing too much for their children,”

―Dr. Edward Hallowell, M.D. Child Psychiatrist and Author

What must we do to be successful in parenting? What are the basic factors that any person must face in order to survive?

Today, there are many ideas and advice about parenting that could be overwhelming for some. The 6574Principles for Purposeful Parenting is not an idea or advice, it’s a comprehensive in-depth insight for raising happy, healthy, independent children to become successful teens and adults.

We’ve all heard these child rearing clichés before: “They are only little once.”
“It takes a village to raise a child.” “Not for the faint of heart”

“You’ll miss these days (with young children tugging you in every direction).” “The days are long, but the years are short.”

Most of them are true statements and they all take on a whole new meaning when you have children of your own.

“Parents, Time Passes So Quickly” and you figuratively have 6,574 days, 157,776 hours and9,466,560 minutes before your child/children turn 18 years of age. When you break it down and look at it, and think about how long those minutes sometimes feel when you are in the thick of raising these little ones, it’s hard to think of this time as being ‘short.’

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”

―John F. Kennedy

At CEK, we strive to give students plenty of opportunity to practice making choices in a controlled, protected environment.

To learn physical self-defense, we have them practice falling correctly, on mats, so they won’t get hurt if they ever fall on concrete. When it comes to making choices, we let them experience reality on a small scale, including the experience of consequences, being both rewarding and painful. We want them to learn the lessons of cause and effect now, while we can keep the lessons safe and the pain minimal. Later, when we can no longer protect them, such lessons can be life shattering.

We encourage students to plan and take action, because mistakes lead to learning and the chance to improve. We look for opportunities to help them evaluate when they performed skills well and when they were off the mark, when they made good choices and when they didn’t. This approach fosters an understanding of the benefits of sound judgment, honesty and self-responsibility.

Our instructors model risk taking and learning from their own choices. They will contrast good and bad decisions they have made, and discuss what they learned in the process. Our instructors help students practice this first principle by giving them choices, asking them why they made the decisions they made, what the outcomes were, how the student felt afterwards, what that feeling meant to them, and what they learned. Our purpose is to help them figure out: “I can learn from my choices and my mistakes.”

Learning enhances achievement.

We encourage self-motivation, effort, practice, and the development of self-confidence based on competence that has been demonstrated. At each belt level, students make choices that can lead to mastery of skills required for the next belt. This goal gives them a point of focus. Their choices and effort determine whether or not they will earn the belt.

You will see our instructors illustrate the benefits of lifelong learning and achievement by sharing their struggles and successes via personal stories or stories of people they know, including those they admire—as well as those they don’t. They will encourage students whenever possible by identifying advancements and improvements verbally and by honoring those who have mastered specific goals. The belt ceremonies are one example of such recognition. Our instructors want the student to learn:

“My choices affect my life.”

We want our students to develop a positive, practical approach to life. We want them to learn that the world is not their enemy—it is a place open for their discovery and success.