20 Awesome Self-Esteem Activities for Kids
As parents, seeing your youngsters locking themselves in their bedrooms with sagging shoulders, sad eyes, and a frown on their faces must crush your heart. Of course, they fervently desire to blend in or attempt anything new, but the issue is that they lack confidence in themselves. Self-esteem is of the essence when it comes to the growth and development of your kids, which is why kids should embrace it.
Children with high self-esteem are better able to handle pressure from their peers, responsibilities, dissatisfaction, difficulties, and both good and negative emotions. It’s important to note that poor self-esteem can negatively impact your kid’s wellbeing and general quality of life. So, to bring an excellent balance to self-esteem, here are the 20 awesome self-esteem activities for kids.
20. Exploring New Opportunities
You may boost your child’s confidence by encouraging them to try new things, find their latent abilities, and take on challenges. However, several kids are afraid of failing and would pass up chances to prevent disgrace. You can achieve this by encouraging your youngster to take part in volunteer work, learn to play an instrument, or join a group. Your kids will learn new talents and improve their self-esteem from learning new ones. It’s like learning what their true potential is. This does help boost their self-esteem.
19. Finding their Interests and Passions
Parents and teachers can help kids learn about their interests and passions by making it a fun activity for them. According to Mindful Mazing, this can be in a group of kids who speak about what they are interested in. Kids must identify their hobbies and interests. Children develop self-confidence and competence when they discover what they enjoy and are good at. Give your kids or students the chance to try out things that fascinate them, and encourage them to do so.
18. Creating a Recipe
Parents can carry out this Activity with their kids. Come up with a recipe where you jot down all the directions and ingredients needed on a piece of paper and give the kids. Once the recipe is on their hands, let them do things as they please and do not interrupt them. You should be there to supervise them for safety purposes, but don’t question their decision to add other of their ingredients. By providing them the freedom to create their recipe, you have challenged them to be creative, which helps with their self-esteem.
17. Creating One-on-One Time with Your Kids
Discuss any minor issues you are having. Your child will be more willing to talk about their problems with you if they hear you speak of your life and realize that everyone struggles from time to time. As an illustration, a parent can mention a problem they are facing and talk about the potential solution to the issue. Your children can sometimes be very fearful or unwilling to disclose the upheaval they are experiencing, and you may not even be aware of it. Try this Activity if your child appears to be going through a similar time. Talking and experiencing support will aid in your child’s development of coping mechanisms and self-esteem.
16. Kids Making Age-appropriate Decisions
Children benefit from options in the same way that they do from chores and special assignments. Give kids the freedom to make good decisions for their age, such as what to dress, what game to play, what to eat, what color to use when making art, where to go for an outing, etc. By allowing students to decide how they will exemplify mastery of a skill (for example, by creating a picture, a song, or a story to demonstrate their knowledge of the weather), teachers can introduce choice into the classroom. They can also allow the class to discuss and select particular books or activities.
15. Taking on Some House Chores
Parents take on a lot of work around the house and should allocate some of the house chores to their kids. Doing this will bring independence as the kids learn to do things themselves without needing assistance. Chores such as kids preparing their lunch boxes, taking the dog for a walk, packing their backpacks, and helping around in the house under the surveillance of their parents are all appropriate for them. According to Very Special Tales, this Activity will allow them to grow to feel they can achieve whatever they put their minds to as they master this from an early age. It is an appropriate way of boosting your child’s self-esteem.
14. Reading a Book on Self-esteem
Arm yourself with books if you want to have a significant impact on a child who is struggling with self-esteem. Read some thought-provoking books to expand your knowledge and improve your ability to help your kid boost their self-esteem. This is an activity you can carry out with your kid as it allows the parent to explain to them the areas they do not understand. Examples of books you can both read include Dare to be You, written by Matthew Syed, Mindset by Carol Dweck, or My Hidden Chimp by Steve Peters. These books will help give your kids a different perspective on life, behavior, and emotions.
13. Physical Activities
Engaging in physical Activity with your child can also help them feel more confident. The kid starts living an active life, which helps them stay fit and self-assured. Because of age, select exercises that are easy for them, such as jogging around the block, and they will grow into this, which is essential. Physical Activity may teach your kid that success and failure are inevitable in life and foster a culture of sportsmanship. Your kid will gradually gain confidence. Remember that giving them praise and encouragement might convince them that you will always be there for them.
12. Use of the Traffic Light Worksheet
This is a powerful problem-solving tool that kids can use to deal with their life’s problems. Having the traffic light worksheet guides them on how they can take steps in dealing with an issue and being successful. Using this tool, which teaches youngsters basic problem-solving techniques, the idea is the hope to promote self-regulation in children. The worksheet works with colors; the red light identifies the problem your kid wants to solve, the yellow light is for the generation of practical solutions, and the green light is where the kid gets to choose and implement the best solution to solve the problem at hand.
11. Making a Bucket List
Enjoyable as it is, this Activity is also helpful in boosting confidence. Have your youngster develop a “bucket list” of all the cool things they hope to achieve, encounter, or do in the coming years. Create a similar list for yourself. Put your to-do lists in plain sight by hanging them up. Looking at the list in the morning will get you one step closer to making your goals a reality. According to The Happiness Coach, this Activity assures your child that they can achieve anything they want, which is suitable for their self-esteem.
10. Kids Practicing Self-Talk
How we talk to ourselves affects how we view ourselves. If your kid thinks negatively about themselves regularly, they begin to feel negative about themselves. You can nudge your kid to practice self-talk for ten minutes. Be watchful and assist them in recognizing false or negative thoughts. Help them realize that they are harsh with themselves, which lowers their confidence levels. Positive self-talk will assist your child in replacing unrealistic thoughts with more sensible ones.
9. Creating a Box of Memories
Find a big box to hold the diplomas, photos, and creations they made while in student groups, at home, or school. With the kid, go over the items to put in the box. These may include certificates, medals, trophies, and other forms of acknowledgment earned for exceptional effort or achievement. Over a semester or academic year, place items in the box. For the following months, have the youngster revisit the box and reflect on the things they’ve accomplished and the challenges they’ve experienced. According to Mom Junction, this makes them feel good about themselves, which promotes self-esteem.
8. Doing Good Out of the Blue
Students can also boost their self-esteem by helping and being kind to those around them. Invite students to perform a kindness act daily for a week and then debrief on their experiences. Doing something nice for someone else without being asked to do so is an example of random kindness, as is holding the door open for them, writing them a note of encouragement, giving them something they don’t need, or simply soothing them when they are upset. These things will assist your kids or students gain the self-assurance they need to succeed.
7. An Examination of Non-verbal Communication
Your child may benefit from taking a body language exam to better handle the self-doubt and negativity that come with these issues. Please test your child’s body language by having them glance in the mirror whenever they have a negative thought. Also, please pay attention to the kid’s body language after you have them replace negative thinking with a positive one. Encourage the kid to record how their body language changes when thinking positively versus negatively. Kids can have high self–esteem from being optimistic, and the earlier they learn this, the better.
6. Setting Up an Achievement Wall
This hands-on Activity that parents can help their kids with is more about creating something. An achievement wall is an excellent way to ensure that the kids know they have done good in this world. According to Positive Psychology, the kids can create a wall of success by framing photos of good times and accomplishments they can be proud of. The wall can be situated in their bedroom or above their beds as this is one place they cannot miss seeing it every day. It is suitable for them to see their successes.
5. Keeping a Self-esteem Journal
If your kid suffers from low self-esteem and they will find that writing in a notebook helps them see the world more positively, they should give it a try. In this journal, they can list the positive aspect of their day and thus positively affect an individual’s sense of wellbeing. The kids should try a more casual approach by just recording the good things that have happened to them in their journals. If they keep doing this, they will always have a positive approach to many things, and their self-esteem will not be affected.
4. Writing an Encouragement Letter
You can strengthen your relationship with your kid while assisting them in boosting their self-esteem by writing them encouraging letters. There may be involvement from additional family members, and it can be a two-way activity where even the kids write such letters to their parents. To participate in this exercise, you can have each family member fill out a chart with two positive and negative comments about the child. When finished, the kid can frame and hang the chart in their room. By seeing the comments on the letter, the child can work towards bettering themselves to get rid of the negative comments and be happy about the positive ones.
3. The Certificate of Recognition Activity
Teachers effectively carry out this Activity. They give each kid a classmate they must observe for a week. According to Big Life Journal, the students mustn’t reveal who they will be spending the week observing. Students design a Certificate of Recognition honoring their designated classmate for anything they did during the week at the end of the week. It might be doing something kind or helpful, engaging actively in class, etc. Tell them they will be conducting self-observation the following week. After the week, they will create a Certificate of Recognition to honor a good deed they have performed. This practice helps to condition the mind to seek for and delight in good things, no matter how minor.
2. Participate in Cooperative Board Games
Children who are liked and accepted by their peers are more assured of themselves. Furthermore, healthy connections are a cornerstone for a healthy sense of self. Cooperation is fostered through good interactions with games like cooperative board games. Because of this, they develop better interpersonal skills, form stronger friendships, and feel better about themselves. Alternately, you may have students work in teams to complete a simple task like constructing a Lego model, sorting words into nouns, verbs, and adjectives, or classifying animals.
1. The ‘I am” Activity
Is your kid overly critical of themselves, or do they take pride in their accomplishments? This exercise provides a means of investigating the issue. To help your kid better understand who they are, have them write down a few adjectives that characterize them. Either way, it might be interpreted as positive or destructive. Then have them compile a list of solely the positive things about them. A photograph of the youngster should be placed in the middle of the chart paper. Instruct the youngster to write encouraging remarks around the image. Keep the blank sheet of paper or drawing sheet in their room as a reminder to think positively about themselves.
