Share your tips on encouraging your children to learn new skills with the England and Wales Cricket Board - £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[EmmaMumsnet]

As we know, children are constantly acquiring new skills and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are now launching their All Stars Cricket initiative, to ensure that children are learning sport and social skills across the UK. To help celebrate this, they’d love to hear your tips on how you encourage your DCs to always be learning new skills.

Here’s what the ECB have to say: ‘All Stars Cricket is a brand new initiative from the England and Wales Cricket Board aimed at providing children aged 5 to 8 with a great first experience in cricket. The programme is delivered across England and Wales at over 1,500 fully accredited All Stars Cricket centres. It is a fun and active way to develop your child’s skills, and through our 8-week programme they will learn lots – as well as make new friends – in a safe and inclusive environment. All girls and boys are welcome, and each registered child will receive a pack of cricket goodies including a cricket bat, ball, backpack, water bottle, personalised shirt and cap to keep so that they can continue their love of cricket when they go home.’

So how do you inspire your DC to start learning a new skill, and make sure they persevere and don’t give up? Do you make sure your kids join teams and group activities where they can be motivated by their peers? Or maybe they’re encouraged to keep trying by you always making sure to attend their events and competitions?

Whatever your techniques for making your kids feel like they can do anything if they keep practicing, share them with ECB in the thread below for your chance to win a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

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Joining in with activities that her older cousins do is a great way to introduce her to new experiences

When my DC have started a new hobby or joined a new club we try and talk and encourage them as much as possible by showing us what they've learned and if they start to go through a stage of wanting to stop we ask them to carry on for just another four weeks and if they really want to stop then they can and usually they decide to carry on once their small wobble has gone

My daughter is always keen to learn a new skill. We've just been working our way through Grange Hill and Suzy was learning Judo so my daughter decided she'd like to learn, which she is!

I always encouraged but not pushed my children to engage and enjoy new skills but ultimately they are the only ones who decide whether to stick with it nothing you can do if they decide they no longer want to attend that group or activity

I give lots of encouragement. If there is something that my little one comments on enjoying doing, I suggest things she might like to try

Make sure they see you as parents as good role models, willing to try something new, even if not brilliant at it. And don't push. If they are enjoying all activity but want to stop after 2 minutes, let them stop. They are likely to try again another time, rather than being put off for life by being pushed against their will.

I think kids very much learn by example so from a young age we have as a family got out trying new things and encouraging each of them to have a go at whatever they like, some things work some don't but it's all about the trying is how we try to encourage this.

I simply encourage them to do what they enjoy but not make a big deal about whether they are ''good'' at it No point in pushing them into things that they don't enjoy, but worth helping them reach their goals when it is their choice.

I always tell my daughter "practice makes perfect". When she asks how I can type so fast on a keyboard or how i'm good at things, I just remind her that I wasn't always good and I had to keep practising which is why I'm good at them now. It inspires her to keep trying at things

A lot of my family play the piano quite well and when our 6 year old wanted to learn but wasn't doing so as quickly as he would like we explained how we all learned to play the piano one note at a time - that we didn't start out playing well and he understood and persevered and got better himself.

I think it's important they find out for themselves what they like and don't like doing. Nothing worse than our DC being forced into something she doesn't particularly want to do, just spoils it for everyone.

I think gentle encouragement but also trying to teach resilience so they don't just give up when things get hard. Also giving them the chance to try out different activities so they can find ones they enjoy and ones they are good at and want to pursue.

I have three boys and they have all done kickboxing since they were 4, they play for the local and school football teams, and my oldest two are learning to play the guitar. My 11 year old loves football but wants to give up guitar and kickboxing. We are refusing to let him give up kickboxing as he's only 4 belts away from his black belt - and as he enjoys it while he's at his lessons - we'll keep him going for as long as possible. We're encouraging him to carry on with guitar a little bit longer as I don't want him to give up on a whim.

I think it's a balance of encouraging them, and also understanding that you can't just quit when things get a bit hard. My youngest two love their activities but my oldest is just at a difficult age where all he wants to do is play on his Xbox, so I need to encourage him a bit more.

I try to teach my daughters about the value in seeing things through and I think that they have already seen that when they stick with something, they do reap the benefits in some way. Luckily they enjoy their extra-curricular activities and we haven't had any major wobbles - yet!

I just try to encourage my son to pursue those interests and skills that he is happy with taking forward, like art & cricket. If he needs further assistance then we get appropriate books from the library (mainly for art projects) that encourage him to build on, and expand, his skill.

I let my daughter choose what she wants to do and luckily she is eager to try anything. We have been doing ballet for 2.5 yrs, but we've decided mutually to quit as she will never be a ballet dancer and she doesn't reallt enjoy it. She has been doing taekwondo for 6 mths and she enjoys that, she has just done her first grading. She also does swimming lessons which she is doing well in. She also does science club after school and sports clubs during the holidays. She loves joining in and needs little encouragement!

I try to give my DDs lots of opportunities to try different things. Saying that, DD1 has always struggled with perseverance, so we try to accomplish things in small manageable steps. DD2 meanwhile, is highly motivated so I have to make sure I give her lots of challenge to keep her interested. It's important to work with each child according to their needs to get the very best out of them.

We find it helps to be excited and involved with them - from going and supporting them to learning more at home together

My DD likes to do whatever she sees me or her dad doing, so if we want her to learn new skills or try a new activity we just have to get off our lazy butts and give it a try ourselves for ten minutes... She'll soon be curious enough to join in / take over.

I always encourage my daughter if she has a natural aptitude at a sport or even if she doesn't but really enjoys it, as that is what it is all about, really.

Olivia has just turned 4 so isn't at school yet but she goes swimming with nursery every week & she's very good at it so we all encourage her. She also has a keen enjoyment in gardening & follows the gardeners around asking questions & even has her own bag of gardening tools to help them so maybe she's a budding Charlie Dimmock, she has the red hair!

Clubs are best where there are other kids to compete against

My DS always spends the school holidays at camp, they always include sports of all kinds which he actively partakes in

From age 3, we took our son to a wide variety of clubs, to see what he was interested in. He ended up swimming at county level.

I encouraged my son to learn things by playing and making sure things were always lots of fun, varied and interesting! As for not giving up, I have no idea, I never found anything that worked and he never stuck at anything!