Hosted by the Thompson School District Gifted and Talented Department

Energy Drain

Consider an occasion when the Energy Drain technique might assist you with a challenging behavior or situation with your child. Take 5 minutes with your table mates to plan an experiment using the Energy Drain technique.

* Learning at Affordable Prices The price a child pays today to learn about friendships, school, learning, commitment, decision making and responsibility is the cheapest it will ever be. Tomorrow’s is always higher. The challenge of parenting is to love kids enough to allow them to fail – to stand back, however painful it may be, and let learning opportunities build our children. * To Protect Them Is Not to Love Them

* I Am What I Think You Think I Am Many parents don’t give their children a chance to build a positive self-concept; instead they concentrate on their children’s weaknesses. The focus centers on what the child is doing poorly, or what he can’t do. The result is a constant eroding of their child’s self-concept. * The Three-Legged Table of Self-Concept Leg One: I Am Loved by the “Magical People” in my Life Leg Two: I Have the Skills I Need to Make It Leg Three: I Am Capable of Taking Control of My Life

“Your Child Can Succeed” Your child has what it takes to learn how to cope with this challenging world.

Allow them to believe this by allowing them to struggle. Daily struggles, such as completing chores, coping with boredom in the grocery store, solving problems with teachers, dealing with peer or sibling conflicts, learning challenging academic content, or experiencing consequences for their decisions are critical for the development of character and strength.

Besides knowing that you love them unconditionally, there is nothing more important than teaching your children: Happiness and success aren’t free. Happiness and success are usually earned by overcoming hardships. Happy and successful people are simply willing to struggle more frequently than their less content and less successful peers. Happiness and success require hard work.

Recall a time when, even with the best of intentions, you stole your child’s struggle. What was the challenge? What action did you take? What was the outcome? Reframe the situation: How could you have altered your response to the challenge to allowing your child to experience the struggle? What possible outcomes might have resulted due to your altered approach?

Each parent is responsible for their own experiment. Plan the strategy for your experiment. Is there a certain time or activity? Is there a specific gift you wish to acknowledge? Share with your table mates and swap strategies and ideas! Plan your when you will get with your accountability partner. No spouses, please!