Raising Your Child to be a Champion

As we all know, an expert is the person from out of town with a briefcase or clipboard. Recently, I was part of a webinar titled, “Raising Your Child to be a Champion,” which was led by Wayne Bryan, the author of the book with this title. He is the father and coach of twin boys who are nationally ranked tennis players, so he most definitely has the credentials for this topic. 

Within the opening minutes, however, I was hearing familiar phrases and philosophies that teachers here say daily. His first cornerstone was “Make it fun!” He said to look in a child’s eyes for a sparkle—if it’s not there, it’s not fun and chances are very good that the lesson will not be learned. How many times have I heard those exact words from our faculty?! “Learning should be fun! If you have a happy, engaged student, you have one who will learn!” I hear on a regular basis from visitors how happy our children are—evidence that our teachers practice what they believe.

Another truth we have in common with this author’s thoughts is that the teacher, coach or parent has to genuinely enjoy what they’re teaching. The best motivation comes from enthusiastic instruction. Passion leads to achievement! Ask Mrs. Anthony about students who run and tell her about a new book they’ve just read, urging her to read it also. Because she’s an avid reader and gets excited about what she’s read, her students are likely to be excited readers also!

Coach Bryan believes that “exposure at a young age, leads to good feelings about activity.” (This could be the Lower School motto!) In his case, of course, he was referring to early tennis exposure. But to cite a “local” example, after our pre-K children learn about volcanoes erupting in Hawaii, later in Earth Science they’re going to have a deeper appreciation and understanding about where and why that happens. They will quite likely also remember the volcano cake Mrs. Smith made!   

A final cornerstone from the “expert” is to instill values in children at an early age to help them become champions. Students here learn and live character education constantly. Whether they are opening the door for their teachers, or turning in money found on the playground, or shaking the hand of a visitor while looking them in the eye welcoming them, lifelong values abound at the Lower School! So as you head off into the summer with your most precious, wonderful children, know, as we do, what champions they are! We look forward to joining you again in August to continue their “fun!”