The Youth Career Coach Inc.

JOB COACH JUNIOR - CAREER COACHING FOR KIDS

Featured in: WORKINGMOTHER.COM Magazine and COLORMAGAZINEUSA.COM Magazine

Engaging youngster's interests to instill good work ethics and job pride
By: Michele Zipp

What do your kids want to be when they grow up? If the typical answer ranges from Superman to Dora the Explorer, you are not alone. But how can you really get the kids to even think about career possibilities when all they want to do is play dress up in your power suit?

We went to NATASCHA SAUNDERS, Youth Career Coach, for the top five tips to get kids excited about work. Saunders has mentored thousands of students on everything from career selection to excelling at interviewing.

5 Tips To Help Your Children Become Career Minded

1. Introduce ideas and concepts. Read your kids stories and identifying the characters that have professional roles. Take them to museums where they have exhibits created by artists, photographers, and physicians. Purchase educational board games that stimulate their mind. Go on field trips to fire stations, zoos, bakeries, and sports arenas. Share what you do at work give them examples or tell it in a story format on how you helped someone today. Visit the library with them to find books on different career interests.

2. Evaluate your child's skills, interests, abilities, and habits. Be attentive to their behavior patterns. "I noticed very early on my niece was really good at counting and noticing price differences when we'd purchase something at the store," Saunders says. "She could say how much things were discounted. These are skills that can be nurtured early on."

Notice if your child loves to talk, perform, or seems to enjoy drawing or any other activity so you can support it. Be open to feedback from family and friends that are in different professions than you they could notice traits in your children as well.

Maintain a list of the books your children reads, with dates, and note which ones are of special interest to them. Keep a diary where you record observations of your child's activities and accomplishments of particular significance, and record ideas for the future.

3. Support their activities. The earlier you involve your child in school activities, the better. Listen to the input of teachers/counselors. Listen to your gut when you think your child may excel in a particular area and help foster that growth. "I have a cousin who is only seven-years-old, who is already a local champion on her swim team," she shares.

Place your kids in activities that would support their skills and/or interests. If they are active, consider martial arts. "I started at five-years-old and it taught me discipline and gave me confidence. I even competed on a national level." Consider play groups with other children, joining kids clubs, enrolling them in camp, or having them take lessons. "Camps also taught me etiquette at a very early age."

Utilize resources such as Careerkids.com. They provide assessments, books, and articles on a variety of topics for kids at all ages. www.kids.gov provides links and great resources for K-8. The site explains careers for children in NASA, FCC, Fire Safety, and more.

4. Teach them the basics. Give your children chores early on such as cleaning and putting away toys to teach responsibility, organizational skills, and how to set routines. Have them shadow you, dad, or other relatives at work. "I started at nine-years-old and helped my mom with filing, stuffing envelops, and delivery packages around the office. It became the first item I listed on my resume."

Open your child's mind up to careers that exist in sectors other than your own. Play pretend for example, play doctor or chef. This helps children develop abstract thought and social skills. It builds self-confidence because they learn how to express themselves and deal with situations.

5. Encouragement! Use supportive words because kids do remember. Let them know they can be anything they want to be by only using positive statements. Help them to change any negative words about themselves to positive statements. Speak life, success, and prosperity into their lives. Tell them how successful that are and how smart they are they will believe it!