As parents, mentoring your preteen can be difficult but also fulfilling, especially for those connected with DPS Warangal. At this point, your youngster is developing yet not nearly a teenager. This time is really important for showing them good habits. These habits will shape who they become and how well they do in the future. In this blog, we’ll check out seven easy tips to help you encourage positive habits in your pre-teen. So, let’s start this journey together and make sure your child heads into the teenage years smoothly.
1. Keeping yourself hydrated
Maintaining our hydration is essential for our health since our bodies need water to work properly. Children become extremely easily dehydrated because of their frequent movement and forgetfulness to drink water.
By emphasizing the value of water for your child’s body, development, and general well-being, you as a parent can teach them the necessity of remaining hydrated and help them remember to drink it. Make an effort to teach them through examples, as this will help the children better grasp the behavior by showing them it in action. Children will attempt to emulate you if they observe you consuming water more frequently.
Kids can maintain better immunity and stay hydrated by being encouraged to drink water on a regular basis. Make sure you’re modeling healthy behavior for our little ones by making sure you consume enough water each day!
2. Accept perceptions and viewpoints
Introducing your children to a variety of viewpoints is like giving them a useful instrument that will serve them well for the rest of their lives. They learn to appreciate and care about other people’s opinions when we instill in them an open mind.
Imagine a situation where your pre-teen is part of a group project. In the group, each member has a unique perspective on how to approach the project. Instead of dismissing ideas that differ from their own, encourage your child to listen and consider the ideas of others as well. Perhaps one of them suggests a creative presentation style, while another prefers an analytical one. By accepting these different ideas, the team can excel in the project and impress their parents and teachers.
Sharing this concept with them will foster a collaborative mindset that values incorporating everyone’s ideas and helping them see the value of each person’s perspective. But there’s a narrow line between considering the opinions and sentiments of others from letting those opinions impact you. Helping them differentiate between these two in a way that develops independent thought is key. This ability to be considerate of others’ feelings and way of thought not only helps them grow personally but also encourages them respect different opinions. Good leaders are the ones who also are able to listen well, and choose from the best ideas so it’s a cohesive set of values that you will help build very early on. It will help them to connect with different types of people and in turn make the world a nice and better place. How is that for a lasting contribution to the world?
3. Encourage kid to be physically active
With hormonal changes just about beginning most kids tend to experience a number of physical changes. In today’s age, where kids tend to stay behind screens, remaining fit and active is key to handling those physical changes. Encourage your kids to engage in physical activity –for both mental and physical benefits. Simple exercise daily will improve their mood. You can take them on a walk with you, jog with them, bicycle or choose any activity that you enjoy as a team. Not only will it offer you a way of staying healthy and dedicated personally, but you will also bond over shared experience.
If you start your kids off early on in life, they will form a lifetime of healthy habits. It means developing resilience and a positive outlook in addition to one’s athletic prowess. People who show up for a sport, or activity consistently have discipline and are able to handle challenges better simply because sports and physical activities expose them to these experiences much more regularly.
4. Develop healthy eating habits
Healthy eating is a valuable habit that you should instill in your children. Teaching kids about the value of food for our health, nutrition, vitamins, and minerals, as well as which foods are good and harmful for our health, is one method to do this. Often kids tend to develop poor habits with respect to food early on because as parents we want them to eat –first and then think about nutrition later. As a result most kids tend to have preferred foods, and they refuse to touch or try other foods. Most parents tend to fear hangry kids and as a result will choose anything over a balanced meal. While it’s a natural choice for parents, it’s detrimental to have a selective relationship with food. Therefore, creating the right relationship with food is the foundation of healthy and balanced eating.
If you have a long established tradition of such behaviour, it would be helpful to engage a nutritionist who can help with creating better habits. Early on, it helps to get your child to try new foods –with different textures, flavours, and colours. That is not to say they won’t develop favourites. The key here is ensuring that they’re open to eating foods, even if they don’t enjoy them, as long as they understand the need or benefit of eating them.
Show your little one what a balanced diet looks like, and let them enjoy treats while still giving their bodies the things they need. Ensure you have rules with relatives and other adults about giving them treats. This helps them build a habit of eating thoughtfully, which is great for their health in the long run.
5. Getting enough sleep
Kids will typically follow the parent’s sleep schedule. So if they find you staying up because you’re revenge scrolling, or indulging in some netflix, they are less motivated to stay in bed. Help create fixed bed times which is usual for kids from early ages. However, as their sense of autonomy grows, and in their preteens, they are less likely to follow this pattern. Instead, you will have a kid who is scrolling away on a screen, sitting right next to you. The better and ideal behaviour is for the whole family to sleep. However, if that’s not possible, help your little energy ball understand that their growing bodies need more sleep. Use their moments of drowsiness to remind them that sleep is what their body is asking for and they should not fight it. It also helps to have dim lights, and help them understand their body’s signals better –exhaustion, moodiness and other typical signs of sleep deprivation can work as good reminders to cajole your child into recognising the need for 8-9 hours of a good shut eye.
6. Develop positive coping skills
As babies, the most common way of expressing our emotions is crying. The ability to work out what a given situation is making us feel is usually created as a blueprint in our childhood. Therefore, learning how to navigate situations, alongside our own responses to them is a skill each child should be taught.
Kids’ mental and emotional health depends on their learning of good coping mechanisms for stress and emotion control. Kids who are given constructive outlets for expressing their emotions—writing, sketching, or participating in their favorite sport—can learn to identify and control their emotions. It also imparts to them superior stress management techniques. They feel safer when we reassure them that talking to us about their emotions is acceptable and that we are not alone. In managing emotions and difficult circumstances, this makes individuals stronger and more intelligent.
7. Encourage healthy dental health
Since kids eat chocolate and other sweets all the time, they run the danger of getting cavities. Therefore, dental hygiene is very important. Do you ever remember recoiling from someone because their breath was so bad? Halitosis can be a common problem with poor dental hygiene and become a reason for impacted self confidence, and self esteem. Maintaining excellent oral hygiene is one way to establish discipline –in brushing daily and correctly. After all, people with good smiles make friends easy. Aid that process by helping your pre-teen see the benefits to brushing twice a day, and keeping their teeth free of visible food particles. Help them practise checking their teeth in the privacy of their bathroom mirror so they know how to avoid unpleasant dental situations if they’re eating messy foods.
These tenets for good hygiene, and health isn’t about imposing a strict set of rules. The idea is to help them learn to care about their own well-being as a habit. You want to help your child navigate the future, having learned good behaviours that aid their life and choices.
Whether it’s drinking enough water, understanding different ideas, playing a lot, or keeping those smiles shining, each tip builds up your child’s health. These are not simply activities; rather, they are enduring gifts. Including these routines in your family’s daily routine not only promotes physical health but also fosters important life skills like empathy, resilience, and discipline.