Self-Awareness Activities for Kids to Help Them Grow
When we think of self-awareness, it seems like a necessary and important thing. The development of this skill may involve engaging in moments of solitude or even taking up meditation to get to understand oneself. But it’s easy to forget when it comes to kids that there’s more than one way to instill it!
Self-awareness is one of the most important skills that your child can possess. It not only helps them understand their abilities and strengths, it helps them understand the character and abilities of others. By inspiring self-awareness activities for kids, they’ll be able to go out into the world and know what choices are right for them.
Fortunately, there are many self-awareness activities your child can do around the home each day to help! While many are fun and inspired, some just require a little bit of time and effort. If you’re helping your child with social emotional learning skills, you may want to visit us at ThinkPsych for more information.
Keep a Journal
Writing in a diary or journal is something that many of us did when we were younger. Whether it was a way to catalogue the day or get out our feelings, it offered a useful means of self-expression. This is precisely why passing along this tradition to a child can be a great idea!
Have your child pick out a journal so they can write in it for five or ten minutes each day. They may even be able to use their skills in creativity to decorate it so they’ll look forward to the activity!
Whether they want to talk about something they did in class or a new friend they made, journaling enables a child to express themselves without having to talk. For a more introverted child, this offers a means of self-expression that can be even better!
Encourage your child to do a daily check-in with themselves and how they feel about their life by writing it down. Whatever they decide to write about, activities for self-awareness provide a much-needed outlet for social emotional learning at home!
Schedule a Check-In
It may not function as the most fun of self-awareness activities for kids, but just talking is one of the most important ways to make them aware. Instead of playing a game or watching a movie, a dedicated conversation with your child can be the best means of processing how they feel. Fortunately, it’s easy to help as their parent!
Instead of leaving conversations up to chance, be sure to schedule a check-in time and stick with it. By sitting down with your child, you’ll probably find it easy to get at how they feel. It also helps to ask some pointed questions in order to direct the conversation and make it a more effective tool.
Try asking your child what words describe them and what a good friend would say about them. Or ask them what they think makes them unique. You may even want to pose dilemma-like questions to them about what they’d do in a situation as a useful means of having them ponder themselves.
Try Something New!
Trying new things gets more difficult as we get older and begin to tell ourselves what we can and cannot do. Fortunately, children have fewer limitations so it’s the perfect opportunity for them to test out their capabilities!
Whether your child likes sports, arts and crafts, or cooking, having them take on a new experience can help them to develop resilience and adaptability. If they like tennis, get them outside to play on the court or send them for lessons! Or if they like to help in the kitchen, give them free rein one night a week so they can pull out the pots and pans.
By trying fun self-awareness activities for kids, your children will learn more about themselves and develop their Emotional Intelligence. It’s only through the practice of trying – and failing – that they’ll be able to understand who they are and keep themselves open.
Read the Right Book
Most children love to hear a story before bed, whether their parents are reading it or they’re doing it on their own. While a story can be a great way of delaying bedtime, it can also be one of the best self-awareness activities for kids!
Books like Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae and The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi are a couple inspiring books your kids will enjoy. They’re also the kind of stories that enable your child to understand why it’s OK to be different so they can appreciate those things about themselves.
For most kids, reading is an activity that they already love to do. Why not make it even better by helping them develop their self-awareness skills while they do it?
Try Show and Tell
Show and tell is a well-known game that kids often play in the classroom to highlight an object or experience. Fortunately, there’s no reason you can’t bring this game into the home so your kids can use it to learn!
For younger kids, sharing objects that are important and telling a story about them can be beneficial for learning what they like. For older kids, using show and tell to share their experiences can provide revelations about their interests and personal strengths. When it comes to fun activities for self-awareness, show and tell is at the top.
As kids get accustomed to sharing what they love and what they like doing, they’ll develop the confidence to go in the direction of their dreams. A child who knows who they are will be able to show who they are!
Self-Awareness Helps with Success!
Self-awareness may be a serious skill, but that doesn’t mean fun and games can’t be had while learning it. In fact, there are plenty of creative activities – like journaling and show and tell – that can really help your child develop this ability. By understanding themselves, they’ll be able to understand others and go out into the world to make a positive contribution.
Are you looking for some fun self-awareness activities for kids? Check out our social emotional learning collection.
References
The Pathway 2 Success. 10+ Self-Awareness Activities for Kids. 10+ Self-Awareness Activities for Kids
Positive Action. Teaching Self Awareness to Students. https://www.positiveaction.net/blog/teaching-self-awareness-to-students
