As a parent myself, thinking about my kids experiencing these things is heartbreaking and it leaves many parents feeling helpless. Luckily, there are two simple tricks that you can do to help your child boost his or her self confidence and “Break Through” these limitations, to become a happier & more confident kid. 

First - Give them Great Role Models - starts with YOU! Model the best practices, the lifestyle, and the self affirmations, that you want for your child

Second - Let others help you! You’ve heard the old saying, “It Takes a Village.” Well, it really does! It shouldn’t be an “OLD” saying, it should be a current saying. Because as parents, we all need help. And we need to not be afraid to ask for it!

Over the next couple minutes I'm going to break this down and give you simple to follow action steps that you can take right now to help your child improve their self-esteem. And make sure to stick with me to the end of this short video & I’m going to give you some simple methods to help you child AND I’ve got a great offer for you to help your child get a jump start on their road to success. So stick with me!

Step #1 -”Give Them a Great Role Model” As the saying goes, you need to practice what you preach. If you call yourself stupid or shy away from challenges, then your child is likely to follow suit. Look at this exercise as an opportunity not only to build your child's confidence but to boost your own, as well. 

 What “best practices” do we want for our child and what things will help boost their self confidence & self esteem?

Exercise consistently – Find a great class that you love. (I happen to know of some cool fitness kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes ;) - But exercise releases endorphins, it makes you happy, helps you get in shape and feel great! This is a HUGE component of self worth & self esteem. Work out because you love your body & your worth it! Not because you hate your body. 

Eat right for the same reasons! Your body is your temple, fuel it with nutritious food & treat it right! We all love our guilty pleasures, and special treats, but make them special and enjoy them in moderation. Make good healthy choices with 80% of the food you eat and you'll be well on your way to a healthy lifestyle and increased self-esteem without sabotaging the training your doing in your classes. 

Stop comparing yourself to others. This is a big one. No good can come from this. No one is in your exact shoes, no one's body is the same as yours, no one's home life, family, relationship, etc. is exactly like yours. Focus on making yours the best it can be and let others do the same. - An extension of this, don't look at others and criticize, judge, ridicule, or gossip about others. It won't make you feel better about your life, or give you self worth, or your life more meaning. Negativity only makes it worse for you. So live and let live and work on improving YOU so you can be a positive role model for your children.

Give yourself a compliment every once in awhile! Kids are great, your kids are great. And YOU raised them! Smile & relax, and compliment yourself on the fact that you’re doing a great job & you’re constantly trying to do even better.

At URSA Academy, we LOVE partnering with parents who have decided to give their kids the tools they need to succeed and help them develop into their best selves physically, mentally, and socially.

Kids in our martial arts program enter our first level program which is called “Kids Bully Breakthrough - Self defense.” This class is designed specifically to help children break through the barriers of low self esteem, low self confidence, social awkwardness, and physical weakness that can often lead them to act out, be disruptive, frustrated, or even combative, and can cause them to be targets for bullies. 

(On the other side of that, if your child IS the bully, these very same issues may be causing your child to pick on other children! Low self esteem can show up in many different ways, but all of them can be helped with the type of structure and rewards that we use in our “Bully Breakthrough Self-Defense Class.” )

First: We help kids become involved in constructive experiences, scaffolded by adults, guaranteeing degrees of success. What does that mean? We use tested and proven childhood development and teaching methods where adults create an environment that challenges students & our instructors support them to help them reach beyond what they think they can do on their own, and achieve success they never thought they could achieve!

While martial arts appears to some to teach fighting or simulate aggression. Our classes encourage teamwork and cooperation instead of competition or adversarial relationships with other children in class. Our martial arts classes focus on self defense techniques and our instructors also coach children on how to respond, when to walk away, how to de-escalate, a situation, and when to call an adult for help. If a situation unfortunately becomes physical, our students will have tried many other methods first, but they will be able to defend themselves using proven self defense techniques, and control their opponent with the least amount of physical damage possible. 

As we often have new students entering our classes at different times throughout our program, every student gets an opportunity to help a newer student find their feet in our program. Veteran students can become mentors for newer students who may be experiencing some of the same nervousness or apprehension they might have experienced in their first class. This mentorship experience can be a huge self esteem booster for kids as an adult they respect is selecting them as a leader and they get their chance to feel like the experts and help someone else along the way. Its a win win for both kids!

We also have a program called “Character Stripes.” This is a program where we want direct feedback with the parents of our students to help encourage them to volunteer & contribute in a positive way to their school, community, family, or even just their household! If your child has a particular area that you would like to see improvement, please let us know and we can work with your child to create a “Character Stripe Project,” and help them set up some measurable milestones to accomplish a goal or complete a project in that area. Successes like these & mini victories in areas that used to be challenges lead to huge increases in self confidence.

Lastly, we take the time to Celebrate their success. Whether its a moment in class where they applied a technique correctly, or they earned a new Character Stripe, take a minute to commend your child for a job well done. There are studies that show that people prefer praise over money! Your child is no different. Tell them when they do something great, even if you think they know it already. They might, but they will still love to hear it. When your child sees how proud you are of him or her, he or she will start to take pride in themselves. 

Praise early & often. Praise them in front of their peers & in front of other adults. We like to use the phrase “Get 1% better every day,” & we like to celebrate EVERY victory & every milestone. This doesn’t mean fake praise or generic “good jobs.” Kids know the difference! But in our classes, in this environment with our instructors and kid mentors, EVERY kid will have opportunities and experiences where they WILL be successful, & they will be winners. We take the time to celebrate that & congratulate them on their success. And THAT has the incredible effect of making a child feel great, and encouraging them to push themselves to achieve new levels of success. 

I hope you liked this report and you got some ideas on how you can build your child’s self confidence and have that big breakthrough that every child needs to have to be successful & come into their own. 

The Team of instructors and I would love to partner with you take the next step in your child's transformation, to help your child build their self confidence & self esteem while helping them to become their happiest and healthiest self! URSA Academy Kids Martial arts has an incredible VIP trial offer that includes 3 classes plus a uniform for $19.99. We'd love to have your child try out our classes risk free & we'll even use the special promo code from the video to save you an extra $5. 

I hope you enjoyed this report and I look forward to meeting you and your family!