/ / How to Encourage Your Child’s Talents through Delight-Directed Homeschooling

How to Encourage Your Child’s Talents through Delight-Directed Homeschooling

Answers in Genesis

Do you make an intentional effort to encourage your child’s talents? It’s an integral part of purposeful parenting and purposeful homeschooling. Here are some ways you can do this naturally in your homeschooling days as you explore delight-directed learning.

encourage your child's talents

How to Encourage Your Child’s Talents

Watching your child uncover their talents can be an exciting part of parenting and homeschooling. While finding activities they enjoy and are good at can be fun for your kids, you may be wondering how you can encourage them to pursue their dreams. If you’re hoping to help your child hone their skills and discover their gifts, consider these tips.

Begin with Heart and Soul

I believe that the foundation of everything we teach our children is faith and purpose. Since I teach my daughters that their talents are a gift from God to be used for a specific purpose in their lives, I focus on this connection to our faith.

sonlight Bible books

We start by studying God’s word and how it applies to our lives in meaningful ways. I emphasize the idea that our Creator cares for us in a personal way and He wants to have a relationship with us through Jesus. This also means discovering and using our God-given gifts.

This includes learning about the parable of the talents and other Bible verses that reinforce this concept. When our children know they are truly valued and wholly loved, their confidence and faith grow by leaps and bounds.

Notice of Material Connection: I received the Connecting with God bundle from Sonlight at no cost for the purpose of review. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions are my own.

We’ve been using the Connecting with God bundle of CDs and books from Sonlight. I believe discipleship is our first and most important responsibility as Christian homeschooling parents and this collection of resources helps with that task. It has become part of our morning basket routine to read from these books and listen to the CDs. Here’s what’s included:

My daughters especially like the CDs. My youngest daughter has memorized scripture by singing these songs. She tends to be musical and loves to sing and dance, so this style of learning suits her well.

All of these things create a foundation to help encourage our children to discover their talents and pursue them with purpose.

Guide, Don’t Push

As parents, we all have hopes and aspirations for our kids, but sometimes our dreams and the talents our kids possess don’t line up. Instead of pushing your own dreams on your kids, give them a chance to uncover their talents on their own. By offering them a variety of activities throughout your homeschool curriculum, you will give them the opportunity to find things they can enjoy on their own. From science to art and sports to dance and coding, there are a variety of ways to encourage new talents in your kids during everyday activities.

Watch and Wait

Watch your children and observe the activities they enjoy – and those they struggle with. Take note of things your kids naturally excel at, then give them more opportunities to hone their skills. Whether your daughter enjoys building structures out of blocks or your son loves singing along to his favorite songs, noticing the activities your kids love is the first step toward nurturing their talents. This, again, is best done through relationship. Knowing your children well will help with this.

Take it a Step Further

After keeping an eye out for your kids’ talents, help them expand their skill set by encouraging them to learn more. Seek out local classes or find supplies to help them explore the activity in more detail. Be sure your child knows that you are both going into the activity with an open mind to allow them to explore without pressure. Delight-directed learning is flexible enough to follow interests and take rabbit trails to find what works best for your children and bring out their natural abilities rather than working against them.

mom and daughter in pottery class

Help Them Grow

Encourage your child to improve their skills, but also give them room to make mistakes. There will come a time when your child gets frustrated with their progress, so providing a foundation of encouragement is essential. In addition to helping your child develop their talent, encouraging resilience in the face of an obstacle is also an important step in the process.

Praise Their Effort

Although it may be tempting to point out the fact that your child is a natural, praising the effort they put into their successes will be more beneficial in the long run. Showing them you notice and appreciate the work they put into improving themselves will not only build their confidence, but will also help them stay strong when things get tough.

Think Outside the Box

Remember that talents come in many varieties. Don’t just think in terms of artistic or musical talents, but remember that your child might be especially gifted in compassion, communication, kindness, determination, and other gifts of the Spirit, not just material or tangible things. Connecting with your child and building a meaningful relationship is the best way to learn how to encourage his or her talents!

Read the whole series!

You might also like to read:

Spark Joy and Ignite Imagination with Delight-Directed Learning

How to Create a Delightful Learning Atmosphere in your Home

Encouraging Your Children to Pursue their Purpose

Literature-Rich, Delight-Directed Homeschooling in the Elementary Years

Summer Homeschooling: Relax and Enjoy Delight-Directed Learning

Delight-Directed Homeschooling for High School

A Day in the Life of Delight-Directed Homeschooling

Relationships are the Heart of our Homeschool

Nurturing Relationships in Homeschool Families

Sara
Follow on
Latest posts by Sara (see all)
kids subscription boxes

Thank you for taking the time to comment!