This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Genesis Bows. All opinions are 100% mine.

One of the biggest challenges for me as a parent is when my children get frustrated while trying to learn new skills. I want them to always have their inner voice tell them “you can,” rather than “you can’t do this.” It takes self-discipline as a parent to resist just taking over and doing it for them. Teaching children self-discipline is as hard for me as a mom as it is for my children to learn.

My oldest son, gets really excited about new opportunities, but also falls into self-doubt really fast when things feel hard.  He is so confident and adventurous that I want to teach him to grab hold of those traits to push through the challenges.

As a parent, I don’t want to see my children fail at anything, but as an adult, I know that failure is part of life. It can be tough as a parent to set a boundary and say to our children, you can do this, you will put forth effort to try, and I will support you, but it is so necessary at times. Children need us to encourage them in difficult challenges so they know they have support. Recently, I had the opportunity to surprise my son with a new challenge, a fun new hobby to help him learn self-discipline in a unique way. (There is a giveaway for you too!)

Teaching Children Self-Discipline with Archery

I introduced my son to the hobby of archery. It is thrilling to draw back a bow with precision and strength, take aim, and send an arrow flying straight to the center of a target. Think of how many games exist with this same method of play like darts-even the foam ones for kids! They all teach patience, eye-hand coordination and balance.

The act of focusing, taking aim and using the muscles of the body to hit a target requires self-discipline, but what I love about archery is the skill level improves quickly-my son needs that to gain confidence. Archery is an activity that gets us outdoors in nature and is an activity we can do together as a family.

I gave my son a Genesis Build-a-Bow, and he was pretty excited when he opened up that long box!

The Build-A-Bow was able to be completely customized with color and we chose to add a kit to so my son would have a complete archery set of a bow, quiver, aluminum arrows, and a target. This is such a unique and engaging holiday gift for children five years old and up!

I knew my son would be excited, and I knew some frustration would enter in as well once he began trying to practice the skills of archery. Wrangling all four kids and trying to help my son with this new bow was challenging, but we put safety first as our mindset. I wanted to really devote some time to my oldest son and help him get past the “I can’t do it,” mental block.

We headed out into the backyard and set up the target on an outdoor coffee table that we slid next to our shed. I tried using the bow first, and it was pretty easy for me to get used to it. It was fun to aim and hit the target. Archery is a great social activity. My son was patient while I tried it out, but I knew he wanted his turn!

I talked him through the steps to “nock” his arrow, pull back on the bowstring, aim and release the arrow. He was challenged by this, but I helped him the first few times. His frustration was showing a bit, but I encouraged him to push past it, to keep trying a few more times.

Then, the arrow started to hit different targets-the ground once, the table another time, and finally he was able to at least get the arrow to touch the target and bounce down to the ground. His confidence began to grow. If I were to have walked away when he started to feel frustrated, I would have lost him. Self-discipline would not have been learned-he would have thought I had no confidence in him.

If my son had been feeling overwhelmed, I would have suggested we take a break and try again later. We would have tried again at a slower pace. He didn’t get overwhelmed though. He handled this new learning opportunity pretty well. I am really glad that we tried out archery since it is not the first sport I thought of to introduce to my child, but it really does teach tremendous lessons and is fun.

Your children may already be using with Genesis Bows at their schools. The Genesis Original is the official bow of the National Archery in the Schools (NASP®), and is used in over 13,000 schools by over 2 million youth across the U.S. annually. Since the organization was founded in 2002, NASP has made the sport or archery fun, engaging and extremely safe and has maintained a zero archery-related injury record.

Being a Disciplined Parent

I think I made some headway teaching self-discipline when my son tried his new bow and arrows. Archery will allow him the ability to learn patience, self-discipline and strength. Those are skills I want him to learn. They are skills every child needs to learn.

Every time my children try a new activity, there is learning that has to take place. I don’t want them to have to feel alone in that challenge. It is important that I help them through tough moments in appropriate ways, but not get frustrated and take over. My children do not learn confidence if I do that. If we want our children’s inner voice to say, “You can do this,” we need to be telling them those words starting when they are young.

Why We Chose Genesis Bows

I like that our Genesis Build-a-Bow is a size that my son can use for years down the road-and of course his younger siblings can use as well. 

The main goal of Genesis® is simple: to help youth everywhere experience the thrill of drawing back a bow, taking aim, and sending an arrow flying straight to the center of a target. Genesis’ patented bow design has helped get millions of kids into the fast-growing sport of archery. These children are building confidence and learning the value of focus, self-discipline and spending time outdoors. Genesis Bows are designed with zero let-off to accommodate draw lengths from 15” to 30”, allowing archers of all ages, sizes and athletic abilities to shoot the same bow without adjustment. It will be really convenient that in a short few months my oldest daughter will be at an appropriate age to exploring archery, so this bow will get a lot of use.

Giveaway

Genesis Archery has offered up a voucher for one lucky winner to purchase their own Build-A-Bow! Enter through the widget below. For more about Genesis Bows, visit Genesis Archery on YouTube.