Supporting Your Child In Their Choice Of Career

All children have their dreams for the future, and these dreams often include ideas of what they would like to do and be when they are older. And whilst these ideas can often range from the sublime to the ridiculous, as our children grow older, and retain those same dreams, as parents we need to look at just what we can do to support them, especially if they exhibit a skill, a talent or an aptitude for the task.

Supporting your child in their choice of career can be difficult to enable if it is something like a fireman, a policeman or a doctor, but it can be easier if your child favours a sport, or the arts, or something that is creative.

Supporting the Arts

A child with a love of music or drama, or with a talent for playing an instrument, can be supported in many ways. There are drama classes and drama schools, some which allow children to apply for a scholarship for, which will enable your child to develop their talent. There are organisations like Stagecoach, which both mentor, and offer opportunities to young actors, and there are also local theatres who often have open casting calls for young actors, as well as local amateur dramatics groups which can allow your child to vital get experience on the stage.

For dancers and singers there are both tuition and classes where the talent can be honed each week, and some High School’s now have specialisation, so you can apply for an academy which has a focus on the performing arts.

For comedy and improvisation, it is not quite so easy, but as a parent there are lots of ways you can help your child. Brian Posen, an actor, director, and producer, has produced a handy guide that gives plenty of tips on ways you can help your young performer, from providing an audience, allowing them to perform for friends and family and getting lessons. The guide also helps you to understand that have chances to perform are so important, but that you also need to help your child develop a thick skin, because there are times that their act will fail and they may die a stage death, something you need to be able to pick yourself up from if you are going to make it.

Sporty Support

A sporty child may well be identified as such by their school, but there are also lots of things that parents can do to help their child’s journey.

Tuition for one to one sports like tennis, badminton and swimming is now far more easy to access, and can take place in your local leisure centres. For team sports, it is crucial you get your child into a team so they get plenty of opportunity to play and improve their skills, they may also get scouted as scouts often attend grassroots matches.

Summer camps are also a great way to develop skills. There are a great range of Summer camps in everything from football and cricket, to dramatic arts and performances, even in arts and crafts. Not only do these help children to hone their skills and develop new ones, but they are also a great fun way to spend Summer holidays.

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