Posts Tagged ‘parenting’

Top Tips to help your child perform with confidence- Parenting Coach Caroline Rowett

Thursday, February 20th, 2020

We recently met with Caroline Rowett, a expert parenting coach. Below Caroline has identified 8 ways you can help your child perform with confidence.

Tips for Parents of Performers

  1. What are your expectations of your child’s performance? Parents face a lot of judgement and so may feel validated when their child behaves well and performs well. Be honest with yourself, are you needing your child’s perfect performance? If you are, understanding and dealing with your own need is the first step to ensuring that the messages you are giving, consciously or unconsciously, support rather than pressurise your child.
  2. What assumptions are you making? They could be anything from: if my child forgets the lines everyone will think I’m a rubbish parent; to if my child isn’t talented everyone will know I’m not either. You don’t need perfect children to prove your worth. Understanding what thoughts drive our actions and knowing how we can change those thoughts can free us to have the confidence to be ourselves and let our children be themselves.
  3. Spend a moment finding your inner calm and if you can’t – fake it! Children can be amazingly sensitive to how we are feeling and if you are nervous, they may well follow suit.
  4. Spend time observing and noting your physical reactions to your feelings in different situations. Sharing experiences of how you calm your butterflies or slow your breathing can help your child see their options. If you share experience rather than advice, your child can take what might work for them, without feeling pressured to do as you say.
  5. If you suspect or know your child will be anxious about performing, do your homework. Research online or speak to your child’s drama teacher about tips that help. Explore the options with your child to discover what works for them.
  6. Put things in perspective. A show can be all consuming for you both but by talking about things to look forward to after the show – an upcoming holiday or birthday party for example, you can help take the pressure off.
  7. Get organised. Make sure uniforms are ready, jazz shoes are where they should be and you have plenty of time to get to the performance to avoid stress. Allow time to check in with strategies for calm if you know they are needed.
  8. Tell them you love them! That you have no doubt they are going to be just fab and to have fun and enjoy themselves.

Find your own parenting advice and the confidence to put it in practice with 1-2-1 coaching sessions or a group course.

For information and to book a 45 minute no obligation Kick Start to Confident Parenting session for £10 visit www.carolinerowettcoaching.com.

For 20% off your first coaching package booked quote SPOTLIGHTSBLOG

Pokemon Go! – A Parent’s Guide

Wednesday, July 20th, 2016

Pokemon Go! – A Parent’s Guide and our tips for helping your child navigate the “real” world

 

The latest phone app game craze hit the UK this week.  If you haven’t heard of it yet we’re sure you soon will.  It’s called Pokemon Go!

The game is an app that you install on a smartphone.  The game is all about catching monsters – Pokemon.  The twist is that this phone app uses augmented reality to show the monsters (using your phone’s camera) in the “real” world.

Whether or not you like your kids having a smartphone, let alone playing games on their phone at all is one debate.  However, this game takes everything up a notch.  In one way the fact that the game encourages the player to get outside and breathe some fresh air rather than slump on the sofa will be something that most parents would encourage.  However, there are some safety points to consider too.

We have found a great article for parents on the Boots WebMD website with a summary of the game and safety points to bear in mind.

In our view Pokemon Go! looks like a bit of entertainment if parent’s are able to monitor their child’s use of the game carefully.  We think there’s still nothing quite giving your kids a fun experience in the “real” world.  If you would like your child to really stretch their imagination this summer you should take a look at our summer school.

We can’t promise that there will be any Pokemon to catch or that our venues in West Wickham and Beckenham will become a PokeStop but we can promise that these performing arts classes will be lots of fun.  We have an Alice in Wonderland workshop for 4-6 year olds and a Shrek the musical workshop for 7-16 year olds.

We will take your child on a real adventure in drama, dance and singing for a whole week where they will interact with other real children and make real friends.  They will learn how to work as part of a real team as they get ready to put on a show at the end of the week.  They will build their confidence ready to face the real world and you can come and watch a real show at the end of the end of the week.

We are running a contest on Facebook to win a free place at our summer school.  You simply need to like the post on Facebook and write a comment about how you like to keep your kids entertained over the summer.  The comment with the most likes will win a free place at summer school.  The closing date for entries is Friday 22nd July at 12pm GMT.

Why not do this now?  Maybe try it on your smartphone!