. . . and a little bit of Zumba.
This summer we completed our 6 week Parent and Child self-esteem workshops combined with Zumba Kids classes and a 9 Tea Cups twist. Our classes were open to all children aged between 7 and 11 and it was a fantastic experience. Seeing everyone grow in confidence has been awesome!
So why add Zumba?
It’s simple, self-esteem shouldn’t be something that we push ourselves to learn. Self-esteem should be fun, we’re working with self worth and that is exciting! So we felt that the best thing to do would be to combine expressive activities with interactive self-esteem tasks. In our workshops we wanted to give children and parents an environment where they felt safe enough to be themselves, we had some Neurotypicals, some with PDD-NOS, some aspie’s and a few with dyspraxia, but none of that matters.
What matters is that they felt comfortable in their own skin and for that to shine through.
The key to the self-esteem classes is empowering the kids without putting them on the spot; some kids love shouting out answers, some need time to get used to the class before they start joining in discussions. Self-esteem and confidence don’t manifest in the same way in all people, some people are naturally quiet, some people like bouncing around rooms and getting involved in things. It’s all good, so long as they are happy with who they are.
A good starting point with boosting self-esteem is owning (what we mean by this is accepting, loving and being proud of) your characteristics; If you are quiet, own it! It’s your choice to be that way and you are happy being quiet. When we own our characteristics we give ourselves the chance to take a look at them and see whether we like them or whether we want to change them.
