Power phrases to help prepare our children for their futures

As you are aware, the world our learners will go into is very different from the world we grew up in. This means that they need a different set of skills in order to thrive, than those we had to have when we were younger.

These children need to learn to how to be lifelong learners. The technology they know now will be well out of date before they leave school and most of the jobs that will be available to them haven't even been invented yet.

This means that skills like the ones below are so much more important than knowing facts as we used to know them.
asking questions, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration (learning and innovation skills),
finding their own answers from a range of sources (information and media literacy skills)
flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-direction, social and cross-cultural interaction (life skills)

The focus now is on providing skills for children to be learning "JUST IN TIME" rather than "JUST IN CASE". Let me explain. When were were younger we might have needed to learn the capital cities of the countries of the world, just in case we needed to know them.

Now we teach the skills of how to find information quickly and accurately. If we need to go to the capital of Sweden tomorrow, we then have skills to find out the information JUST IN TIME.

This is not to say that facts are not important. Of course they are, and they lay a foundation for the development of further fact acquisition. It is to say that the most important things we can teach our children are not facts, but are rather dispositions.

Things like getting on with other people and being self-motivated to take initiative with their own learning are so much more important though than reciting a series of facts.

So what are some phrases we can use to help our children begin to grow in confidence with skills they need for the future?

Instead of "Why didn't you...(pick up the towel off the bathroom floor, put a full stop on your sentence)?
try "What could you do to improve the appearance of this (room, writing)?" The the child has to think the thought for himself.

Instead of "Stop bickering!"
try "I'm going to watch you two for the next few minutes and see if you can work it out together and I will be so pleased if I can see you can solve the problem and collaborate together. One person talking at a time while the other person listens. If you can't then I will give you some more tips and you can try again." This gives the children a sense of responsibility and some skills that will last a lifetime.

Instead of "Yes you can play on your iPad" (although it has its place)
try "Let's brainstorm a list of fun things we could do when we are bored instead of going on the iPad." (creative, divergent thinking)

Instead of giving children the answer to their question (about how a rainbow gets in the sky)
try "How do you think it might get there? and then "How do you think we coud find the answer?" then find the answer together.

Instead of nagging our kids when they are not (getting ready for school or doing their homework),
try rewarding them when they are using skills we value, eg "I love it whe you show initiative", "What good problem solving!" "How creative!"

Instead of 'you must love God and obey the commandments"
try "I love God and because I love God I want to......" They will be more inspired by your example than your rules.

Simple 'power phrases' like these, repeated many times, will help your children to prepare for whatever the world throws at them in the future!