Stop Start Continue - An Approach to Helping Kids Improve

In general, my daughter is incredibly well-behaved but she is definitely a work in progress. These past few weeks we have seen some changes in Andrea's attitude and character that needed more molding. The attitude was escalating which resulted in 5 crying spells yesterday and 4 today. My husband turned to me and told me that we had to do something about this. I racked my brain for an idea as I know my daughter's personality. She's very sensitive (which makes her incredibly compassionate and loving but also makes her sensitive to criticism) and she likes the cerebral approach. Combined with the fact that she's celebrating her birthday soon, I decided to design an activity to guide her in figuring out how to change her attitude.

STEP 1: Reminding her of her positive traits.
- I told her that as she is about to turn 8, it would be nice to remember all the awesome things about 7-year-old Andrea. We talked about 7-year-old Andrea's traits, learnings, accomplishments, etc.

This helped lift her spirits up and lessened any defensiveness and sensitivity she might have to the succeeding steps.

STEP 2; Start - Stop - Continue
I asked her, what should 8-year-old Andrea Start doing, Stop Doing and Continue doing to become what God intended her to be and to be even more awesome.

I gave her an example but she basically took the reigns on this activity. Surprisingly, she really enjoyed this. See a few of her answers below:

This is insider her planner so she can continually refer to the list and update it.

STEP 3: Prioritize and Plan
- Ask the kid what's the most important. What would she like to work on first. Then ask the following questions: What steps do you need to take in order to do this? What help will you need from me?

STEP 4: Pray
- Tell your kid that change is always difficult but God can empower us to be the best versions of ourselves all for his glory.