Parents, what do you think is the one most important character trait your child must have to be successful in life? Is it kindness? Being courageous? Having a joyful demeanour? Undoubtedly, all these positive traits will help our children get through life a lot easier, but it is interesting to observe that the parents whom we have run this informal survey by had unanimously voted for “self-confidence”.
Self-confidence plays an important role in pushing a child in the direction of success. A confident and secure child is most likely to thrive in school and in life. Some children are born confident, while some would need a little more encouragement – regardless of the child’s personality, building confidence is an ongoing process, starting from home.
But how do we do that?
Let’s Start with the ABCs
Well, instilling confidence and building self-esteem need not be costly or complicated, but they do require discipline from the parents to journey with the child.
Building confidence can be achieved through many activities that we are already doing at home daily, the main key here is to keep an active interaction with your child. Singalongs, watching educational programmes, reading – all these seemingly mundane activities are like tiny building blocks that will eventually create a solid wall of confidence in your child.
One of the best ways to build confidence in a child is through learning a language. English is a great place to start as it is a universal language and most of us are already speaking it at home as our first or second language.
How Can We Help?
- Sing-A-Long
Music makes the world go round! And we couldn’t agree more. Play a catchy and age-appropriate tune, sing along with your child, and watch their eyes glow! Or with older children, you could request them to copy down the lyrics (expanding their vocabulary bank! Win!), memorise them, and then have a karaoke session together.
- Scribbling
I love doing this with my children! All we need are pencils and papers! One of us would start writing down a sentence or a phrase – it could be anything, even if it does not make sense! Keep adding to the sentence and eventually, it becomes a story – the more meaningless it is, the more hilarious it gets, and the faster the child will learn. Some nights we would play this game verbally when we were all in bed until the little ones caught the Z bugs. This indirectly builds great confidence in the children, while having fun!
- Games
Games are a great way to foster bonds, de-stress, and give children a chance to interact. Classic games such as Scrabbles are great to learn new words with – not to mention the game also presents an opportunity to learn how to use a dictionary, a dying art, I must say! With younger children, a simple made-up game such as “I Spy” is a good start to let them practise speaking, learn to be observant, and verbalise what they see.
A Little Help, Please
Juggling a career, household matters, and raising children are undeniably challenging for both mums and dads. And let’s just face it, being a teacher is not the easiest thing for some of us who are not gifted in the area of teaching – let alone teaching a language! For situations like this, we are glad to have a variety of enrichment and language classes available to ease our children’s learning needs.
Novakid – Where Confidence Soars!
One such language school is the Novakid English Learning Platform. It offers online classes, so parents can rest assured that their children are learning in a safe environment, protected, and unaffected by the pandemic.
Fun yet effective
Each class is limited to 25 minutes to maximise your child’s attention span. Children will be learning through engaging built-in games, catchy songs, and interactive homework!
Intimate
Every session will be carried out on a one-on-one private basis. Without the distraction of being in a class setting, every child in the programme will be able to stay focused and reap the most out of it. The teachers will be leaving feedback so that parents may track their child’s progress after every session.
The programme is opened to children ages 4–12 and it is based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). All Novakid teachers are CELTA, TEFL, TESOL, or TKT certified.
Convenient
Classes are conducted online; parents have the freedom to choose their preferred timing as the platform provides a flexible schedule between 09:00–20:00. Novakid’s wide panel of teachers’ profiles is systematically listed with detailed credentials, experience, as well as ratings so that you may identify one that suits your child’s learning style the best.
Safe
Trusted by over 70k parents from over 17 countries. The platform uses Stripe (PCI Service Provider Level 1, which is the highest level of certification available in the payments industry).
Students can check the ratings of each of the teachers. Video Credit to Parent Talk Indonesia.
Getting Started
Kick starting on Novakid English Learning Platform couldn’t get any easier with their user-friendly interface. Here is a quick guide!
1. Parents will be sent a link, where they can choose between the Parents’ dashboard to schedule for classes and get feedback from the teachers OR the child’s dashboard, where all the fun is!
2. Click on “Jadual” and “Kelas Baru” on the left to access the timetable and activate a new class.
3. Click through the teachers’ profiles, schedules, watch their introduction videos, and choose one whom both you and your child are comfortable with! And then, select weekly classes or once-off with the teacher, your preferred date and time.
4. Almost there… click to verify and confirm your slot!
5. And voilà! You are all set! Now just countdown to your first child’s first lesson!
6. The website is easy to navigate to ensure minimum work for the parents and maximum fun for the children! To switch to the child’s profile, simply move the cursor to the top right corner and click “profil”, and you will be directed to choose between the parents or the child’s dashboard.
Game On?
Ready? Now get your first 4 lessons for only RM64 (instead of RM148)!
Head over to Novakid for more information. Register today and watch your child bloom!