Career Coaching for Kids

Success Means Starting Early

What do your kids want to be when they grow up? If the typical answer ranges from a fireman to Barack Obama, you are not alone. The key is to get the kids to consider career possibilities even when they might rather play video games or hang with friends. Here are five tips to get kids excited about work.

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

Evaluate your child's skills, interests, abilities and habits

• Be attentive to their behavior patterns. I noticed very early on that my niece was really good at counting and noticing price differences when we'd purchase something at the store. Skills like that should be nurtured. Notice if your child loves to talk, perform, draw, etc., so you can support it.
• Be open to feedback from family members and friends who are in different professions than you - they could notice traits in your children as well.
• Maintain a list of the books your child reads 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.

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.
• Place your kids in activities that would support their skills and/or interests. If they are active, consider martial arts, which can teach them discipline and self-confidence.
• Consider play groups with other children, kids clubs, camp and having them take lessons.
• Utilize resources such as careerkids.com. They provide assessments, books, and articles on a variety of topics for kids at all ages. Kids.gov provides links and great resources for K-8. The site explains careers for children in NASA, FCC, Fire Safety and more.
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, your spouse or other relatives at work. I started at nine years old, helping my mom with filing and stuffing at the office. For a while, it was 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 manage situations.

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 and smart they are - they will believe it and be it!

To learn more visit www.nataschasaunders.com.