Motivational children's books for girls: A Girl Named Pants
I had a conference with my daughter, Olivia's, first-grade teacher today. The teacher was reporting on Olivia's progress from the beginning of the school year. We talked about all of the typical things. But when we were finished doing that, I asked about Olivia's progress in becoming more confident.
You see, since Olivia switched schools from kindergarten to first grade, my wife and I had been concerned that she would have a difficult time being confident with her abilities...being a leader. At the beginning of the year, Olivia was very shy. But her teacher reported that Olivia had become extremely outgoing and confident throughout the year. We asked Olivia's teacher what she had done to help her to come back out of her shell. Her teacher told us that she had simply asked Olivia to help some of the other students with reading and math.
It appears that asking Olivia to teach others had a double impact. First, it helped Olivia to appreciate how smart she was as she helped other students, and that helped to build her confidence. Second, it helped those she was teaching to appreciate her as a really smart person...and that altered the way they treated her. Over time, Olivia's classmates began to treat her as a class leader, and that made Olivia feel like more of a class leader.
So, to raise confident daughters, try teaching them to teach others.
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