Every child loves to play dress ups with a crown and feel like a prince or princess from time to time. Even adults love to feel like princes or princesses from time to time.
There is something about wearing a crown that makes you feel special and every child deserves the opportunity to feel special because they are.
In The Magic Coat workshops there is a workshop called The Magic Crown and children get to leave wearing their very own Crown, with the knowledge of what wearing a Crown really means.
In The Magic Coat workshops we have created an acronym for the word Crown.
C - Confidence
R - Respect
O - Optimism
W - Willingness
N - Nobility
Children are taught that, to properly wear their Magic Crown, they need to be able to live their life to the acronym that the Crown is.
Let’s have a look at each quality and understand why we would want to encourage our children to live by each one.
Confidence
Children who feel confident about themselves have good self esteem. Self esteem is one measure of a child’s overall mental health and will determine how easily a child makes friends, behaves day to day, succeeds at school, manages their different emotions and copes with challenges and frustrations that arise.
When a child experiences success and achievement, no matter how small, this builds their confidence so children need to be provided with plenty of opportunity to find what activities they are best at and have opportunities to succeed. Remember that every child is different and the success you want them to experience needs to be genuine.
As a parent your praise and encouraging words go a long way in soldifying confidence in your child.
Respect
It is important that we teach children to respect themselves and others but it can be a difficult concept for children to grasp.
In the Magic Coat workshops we do an activity where we ask children, “What is your favourite colour?”, “What is your favourite food?”, “What is your favourite TV show?” Each time it is pointed out to the child that their friend likes something different to them and ask it that is ok?
This approach demonstrates to a child that, when we respect others, we understand that they may think, act or like differently but we still treat them in a way that shows we care about their opinions, feelings and well being.
Optimism
Some children find it harder to be optimistic than others but learning to deal with life’s disappointments is very important because children who see negative events as evidence that their world is ending, rather than as a temporary set back, are more at risk of depression. Children need to always hold on to a sense of hope. Life changes all the time and many times for the better.
In the Magic Coat workshops children are taught how to control their self-talk and to change negative thought patterns into positive thought patterns.
Willingness
In order for any child to succeed in life he or she must be willing to do so. There is an incredible sense of entitlement amongst children these days and we need to stop saying, “You can be anything you want to be” without forgetting to mention that, “You can be anything you want to be if you are willing to put in a lot of hard work, come up against obstacles and fail from time to time”. Children need an attitude of willingness to give things a go and to do their very best at everything.
Nobility
Children need to understand that wearing a crown doesn’t make you noble. Noble is characterised by a person who lives every day doing what is morally and ethically right. They make tough decisions to always do what is right, rather than what others try to push them to do. Nobility teaches children important characteristics of what it takes to be a leader in this world.
Once your children have understood these important qualities, you can set about having a parent/child date and creating your own paper crowns to wear.