9 Keys to Your Child's Success in School and Life

It's back to school time and every parent is hoping for a successful year for their child. If they go away to school they have the adjustment of spending more time with peers and less with family. If they home educate, they are looking for opportunities to continue building friendships while pursuing academic excellence at home. Everyone is interested in social development and academic excellence. Research shows that physical fitness, good relationships with the family and friends, and character development all have a positive impact on school performance.

Some areas that parents can immediately work to improve to help give their child the best chance at personal satisfaction, high self esteem, academic achievement and successful friendships and other relationships later in life include:

• Lots of interactive play time with parents
• Parental affection and love
• Character training that sets boundaries for behavior
• Predictable schedules
• Sleep
• Healthy nutrition
• Exercise
• Less television / phone / tablet time
• Laughter

To help you with these goals, Exercising Values provides a set time each day to playfully teach physical fitness and good character. Having this time as a regular part of your daily schedule is a wonderful way to keep family bonds strong and to help your child succeed. The follow-up character story that is a part of the Exercising Values program  is another child-friendly way of guiding them towards personality traits that will help them be successful in life.

It teaches them the reasons for behaving a certain way rather than just demanding compliance. At a young age, it molds them into people who will respect and care for themselves and others. It’s also a lot of fun and makes children feel special and loved. These stories from great children's literature have stood the test of time.

One aspect of the program reinforces the other aspects as children experience as a package: physical fitness, good character, and receiving love and attention from their parents. Exercise is grooved in their brains as a pleasant experience so later in life they will be less likely to adopt a risky sedentary life style. Likewise, good character blooms from the accumulated time they spent pleasantly learning it from their parents. Fifteen minutes isn’t long, but when it occurs day after day, the time adds up and you’ll be amazed at the accumulated effect.

In the same way, consistent exercise holds the key to physical fitness. Don’t forget, the weekends offer opportunities for  longer games and sports. Keeping the time frames doable on busy weekdays help ensure that you never abandon the program when life gets hectic and busy. It’s a minimum daily requirement of sorts that keeps you moving forward.

Every parent knows that children seem to arrive with different temperaments that require different methods of guiding and interacting with them. These differences have also been the topic of much scientific research. Dr. James Dobson, for example, wrote extensively on the special needs and special strengths of the strong willed child. These studies have shown that temperament will impact future success. This is sometimes referred to as emotional intelligence and includes the ability to interact with others.

Even though children arrive with a certain bent toward being shy or outgoing, demanding or easy-going, compliant or assertive; there is much parents can do to turn these tendencies into strengths and not weaknesses. We need all kinds of people but no one needs to be a bully, a wall flower, a push-over, or a tyrant. Character training doesn’t try to create one type of person but rather to constructively channel each person’s strengths so they can become the best version of themselves. This doesn’t happen by accident and parents are their child’s first and most important teacher.

Exercise is a great way for aggressive children to constructively channel their energy. It’s a great way for shy children to make friends and gain confidence. Bossy children may become natural leaders who learn how to inspire people and not to push them around. The list of benefits goes on and on.

Exercising with parents has the added benefit of forging close family bonds and opening up communicating that once established while young is likely to last through adolescence and beyond. It’s an investment in their happiness and your own. So as the school year begins, set aside some time each day to create a strong mind in a strong body. Moms stay fit right along side their kids.