Five Summer Activities That Help Strengthen Kids Self Esteem

Source: Jill Schoenberg

(21 ratings)

School is out, summer is here and our attention has shifted from academics to play. For many parents the summertime challenge becomes how to keep their kids busy and how to ensure that their children stay out of trouble. But take heart, there's a simple solution: Get children involved in activities that help develop their identity and enhance their self-esteem.

Here are five fabulous summer activities for parents and kids.

Burn Out

The end of the school year may bring with it a sense of burn out. This is a wonderful opportunity for parents to model the healthy habit of self-care to their children. Learning how to care for oneself is an important component to improving self-esteem as it teaches the vital skill of recovering from stress and burnout through rebalancing and recharging.

Teach your child that after working hard and achieving goals (such as graduating to the next grade), it is wise to take some time to relax, rest and recuperate.

A fabulous self-care idea is to encourage your child to dedicate a whole week to sleeping in, lounging around watching movies and doing a whole bunch of nothing! As an added bonus you might consider giving your child time off from household chores for the week. Make the experience extra-special and treat your child to a foot massage or a movie of her choice with popcorn, soda AND candy.

But there's a catch to this week of self-care and luxury. You must establish a start and end date for this mini vacation. This way you'll teach your kid that although achievement has its rewards, it only lasts so long before it's time to get into action once again.

New Experiences

Once a child has rejuvenated his spirit he will be ready to get active and to have some fun. Sampling a variety of new activities will expand your child's horizons and bolster his self-esteem.

A great way to engage your child in new experiences is to encourage him to identify some local activities that he has never experienced before. Kids can easily identify exciting events by looking through the paper, reading the community board at the supermarket or visiting a local online resource of community happenings. He might just discover that a rodeo is coming to town!

A few more great ideas for fresh summer experiences are to attend a camp, go horseback riding, discover a new talent or learn a new skill. Advocate that your child go beyond his usual comfort zone and link up with new experiences that will help him learn more about what he likes, dislikes and enjoys. By expanding his horizons, your child just might be surprised by how much he discovers about himself and his interests.

Family Fun

Another great self-esteem building activity is to spend family time together based on common interests. For example, if everyone in the family enjoys riding bicycles then plan and share a biking adventure. Together you could explore a state park or bike to a nearby town and back.

If biking isn't for your family then look for other ideas. Is your family musically talented? In this case, a fun activity is to compose and record a song together. Take it a step farther and host an exclusive viewing of a live performance of the song for friends and extended family. You might even create and publish a music video on YouTube!

It is very easy to determine common interests among family members. Simply ask each person to write out a list of the top 30 things that bring them joy, fun and excitement. Then, collect the lists and search for similarities and themes until a specific interest is identified. Lastly, plan a family fun activity based on one of the common themes you discovered together!

The sense of belonging and the closeness that your children will experience from family fun time together will bolster your child's sense of self-esteem in unimaginable and powerful ways.

Journaling

Creating a shared journal with your child is a fabulous summer time activity. You can make this activity extra-special by focusing on specific qualities, traits and talents your child possesses and on celebrating her uniqueness. You know... that stuff she has that adds flair to your family.

A specific journaling idea is to list out at least three things you love about your kid. Keep in mind that you are celebrating the inside stuff that makes your child so unique. So for example, you'd want to tell her how talented she is at drawing or painting, or how impressed you are by her ability to meet new people.

Once you've listed out three items you admire about your child the next step is for her to list out three items that she admires about you. The giving and receiving aspect of this journal keeping idea is what makes it such a powerful self-esteem building activity for kids and parents alike.

The point of this journaling activity is to be a mirror for each other. Because if your child can find lots of really great stuff about another then she can certainly find lots of really great stuff about herself. This means that she has a strong sense of self-worth and, in turn, healthy self-esteem.

You might include grandparents, friends and neighbors in this journal keeping activity. Oh, and get creative by using colored pencils, markers, crayons, stickers, spangles or other art supplies. Draw pictures, write a poem or write a single word across the page. There are endless ways to jazz up a journal and to turn it into a treasured keepsake.

Enjoyable Activities

Insist that your child participate in some activities just for the pure fun of it. This is easy to do. But, be certain that there are no goals or outcomes to achieve and that there is no competition. The point is to experience joy!

You and your child might grow a garden, go on a picnic, visit a zoo, go camping, take a nature walk, fly a kit, eat an ice cream cone, make homemade ice cream, create a puppet, have a treasure hunt, collect feathers, paint rocks, make a Christmas present, play hide and seek, listen to the birds, make a paper air plane, learn origami...

The list of joy activities goes on, and on and on.

Experiencing joy for joy's sake is a life skill that will help your child learn that self-esteem is about feeling really good, free of any pressures and filled with the sweetness that life has to offer.

Summer is an excellent time for kids to relax, experience themselves in new ways and enjoy being a valued member of their family. With careful attention to your schedule and to your child's daily and weekly activities you can ensure that you both enjoy a spectacular summer that is fun-filled, fabulous, and self-esteem enhancing for your child, too!

Learn new things, grow together, share, laugh, and love, and, above all, make this the best summer ever.

Jill Schoenberg is the Award-Winning Author of the Dove Family Approved Journal Buddies Books for preteen girls and boys. Kids rave about these journals and parents love them.  Learn more about creative, shared journaling by visiting JournalBuddies.com today or buy your copies from Amazon.com.