Celebrating a milestone or achievement can give a child such an amazing feeling. It is incredibly wonderful when someone notices not just the achievement but the effort put in. It is even better when this effort is publicly acknowledged.
Celebrate achievement
Why shouldn’t we celebrate achievement? It boosts the child’s confidence and increases their motivation.
Even we, as adults, crave the same. Employees need to know that their efforts are recognised and valued. According to Gallup’s analysis, only one in three workers in the US strongly agree that they received recognition or praise for doing good work.
So how can we define achievement here? The tendency is naturally to think big – to picture something out of the ordinary and unusual. But there are other behaviours that children also deserve recognition for. For example, learning a new skill, practising something they find difficult or boring, being consistent about their effort, paying attention, thinking through an issue.
Providing the support children need
Do children have trouble with writing? It is common that some children dislike or avoid the writing process. Some feel it takes a long time, others feel it is laborious. Others may have processing difficulties.
But there are things that we can do to help children become stronger writers. We can encourage them and create the right environment for them to thrive. We can provide all the tools they may need to get started. We can share resources and tips to give them a small push in the right direction, a little hand-holding along the way. We can gamify the activity or task so that it becomes more fun.
In terms of writing activities, celebrate not only the fact that the story is well-written. Celebrate the fact that the child took time to sit with the theme or topic and come up with new ideas. Celebrate the fact that they persevered with writing even when it became difficult. As Pearl Kim-Kregel says in her article, Celebrating children’s achievements great and small, “After all, it’s the smaller, “quieter” successes in life that can add up to a lot, especially when it comes to the self-esteem of kids.” Let’s also celebrate the small successes which may be less noticeable.
We are proud and excited to share a (growing!) selection of Storyathon stories.
Can you write a story that is exactly 100 words? Challenge accepted! Join us at www.storyathon.com
