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I see my child learning a new skill everyday. I also see his eagerness to try out new things with his new found skills.  As parents, my wife and I try our best to help our son practice his new skills throughout the day. We know that this will help build his self-confidence. Self-confidence could well be the greatest gift we could give our son; it is something that money can’t buy but we have the power to give it to him. We know that it is important to start building self-confidence early in life, so we try our best to find ways to turn every circumstance (if it is possible) in our three-year-old son’s life as a chance for him to realize his worth as a human being. It doesn’t need anything grand, like big preparations, to do it; we only need to spot the right moments–the fertile moments for planting the seeds of self-confidence in him.

When he was two my son learned to use the spoon and fork. Though it was messy at first, we did not mind it and encouraged him to do it. We knew that it was too early for a two-year-old to want to feed himself, but when he showed that he wanted to do it we gave him the chance to prove that he could do it.

When my son started to insist on dressing himself we allowed him to do it. At first it was a struggle to get the buttons to the right places but now he’s good at dressing himself. And he’s even got his say about what he should wear when going out. He chooses the shirt, the pants, the shoes, and the socks to wear to Sunday school.

Allowing your child to help with chores will help make him feel empowered. My son loves it when I allow him to “assist” me when I am fixing something. I know that it is very important for his self-confidence to be allowed to hand me the screwdriver or other light tools while I am fixing an appliance.

When you allow your child to try a new task, you are telling her that you believe in her.