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Today in the world there are more than 400 thousand of various professions, of which more than 3 thousand are in industry and construction alone. Moreover, this circle is constantly changing. The answer to the question of who the child will be will also be different depending on the age of the children, the situation in the country and the world.
The choice of a future specialty is influenced by hobbies, level of development, advice from teachers, parents, older brothers and sisters, comrades, the prestige of the chosen field, and demand in the labor market.
It is important to remember that when telling children about professions, one should not voice the negative side of any work. This may cause the child to be in denial. The information received in each specialty will broaden his horizons, and he will independently evaluate the positive and negative aspects.
How to help your child choose a profession
Choice of profession
- This is a personal decision of any person.
It often depends on the subjects studied at school and the in-depth teaching of individual sciences. The responsibility of adults
is to create an atmosphere filled with warmth and comfort, in which it is comfortable to develop and search for one’s purpose.
How to understand which profession will bring pleasure and financial well-being to a child in the future?
To do this, you need to try to study information about specialties and their relevance, including a couple of decades in the future, watch videos, documentaries, read expert bloggers, attend conferences, forums and personally communicate with representatives from a particular field.
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What do you like to do?
It’s enough to remember a hobby or think about what the child likes to do in his free time. Is it difficult for him to answer? It's okay, envy will come to his aid: ask which of his friends he envies and why. A classmate, a football player, or maybe a friend, whom her mother taught to sew stylish clothes. You can learn a lot of interesting things. It would be useful to remember in which lessons at school the child listens to the teacher with interest.
Another good way is to play 10 Lives. Invite your child to come up with 10 scenarios, in one of which he can be a sailor, in another - a film actor or a representative of a more mundane profession - a lawyer. Any options are possible. When we have the required number of scenarios, we change the rules: now out of 10 lives you need to choose only three.
As a result, you will have several favorite or desired activities. Write them down on a piece of paper.
Typical mistakes when choosing a specialty
A common mistake is children’s refusal to identify their interests, weaknesses and strengths. And a number of factors contribute to this: complexes, low self-esteem, indecision. Do not make mistakes when choosing a profession. To do this, consider the following:
✔ Refuse to divide specialties into “top” and “non-top” ✔ Don’t impose a personal opinion about a particular profession ✔ Don’t force you to study for the sake of a diploma ✔ Don’t put off determining your specialty ✔ Don’t be afraid of promising areas
Try not to make mistakes, understand the child: his abilities, capabilities, talents, interests. Assess the demand for the profession and the demand of society. Identify strengths and weaknesses in relation to the work ahead.
What can you do now?
When dreaming of becoming a writer or businessman, we often imagine only the positive aspects of these professions. This error of perception is common even to adults, let alone children. For example, a writer is seen as a person who sits by the fireplace with a laptop and writes novels. He earns money through creativity and does not have to go to work every day. In real life, they rarely become famous writers right away, and sometimes they don’t become famous at all - and they combine creativity with the work of a journalist, copywriter or translator.
To find out what the business the child has chosen actually is, you need to try it. A teenager has many opportunities: volunteering, courses with project activities, and so on. You can work somewhere unofficially.
For younger children, the best option is books and films that tell about the lives of real astronauts, writers and businessmen. Read biographies of outstanding people from the field that interests your child. Offer to play in the profession of his choice, give him simple tasks (for example, write an article about how you went to the theater). If possible, introduce your child to a real businessman, lawyer or journalist. Let him tell you what his working day consists of.
Practical recommendations for preventing errors
Based on the idea of the world of professions, it is necessary to create a complete picture of the labor market. Initially, it is important to prepare a list of requirements for the chosen craft. In this list, along with the desired profession, the following points are important: • Occupation, inclinations, interest, self-esteem • Views and beliefs, goals • Problems on the way to the profession • Opportunity for employment in the specialty and working conditions
Determine in which university the child would like to receive a vocational education in a particular specialty, and what the conditions are there. It is also worth clarifying the requirements for applicants and the duration of training.
What are you good at?
This question can be difficult to answer even for an adult when filling out a resume. The participation of parents, friends and possibly a school teacher will be required. What request would you make of your child: help with the computer, come up with a cool caption for an Instagram post? Does mathematics or literature come easier to your child? Please note that we are no longer talking about favorite subjects, but about those where the child shows the best results and quickly completes homework. Write down everything that you managed to remember together next to the column of your favorite activities.
The more often you remind your child of what he is doing well, the more motivation he will have to continue doing it. And in this way you form a realistic idea of your capabilities.
Tips for parents
Choosing a profession and finding a future calling while still a child is not easy, but it is possible. Here are some important tips for parents: ✔ When communicating with your child, observe hobbies and behavior, identify strengths, and reveal potential. ✔ Listen to your child’s desires and aspirations. ✔ Take part in research into unfamiliar professions, discover with your child prospects that you might not even know about. ✔ Attend excursions, open days at universities and enterprises. ✔ Give your son or daughter the independent right to choose a specialty, take into account their opinion.
The world is changing quickly, and it is difficult to say what professions will be in demand after graduation. Therefore, it is necessary to develop various skills in a child and look for ways to use them. Conversations with teachers, psychologists, courses, clubs, sections, seminars and master classes will help with this.
A wealth of communication skills and knowledge will allow you to easily communicate and maintain a conversation, behave correctly in a team, and increase self-esteem and understanding of desires. Self-confidence will not take long to appear. The child will feel better about those around him, he will become open and friendly.
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Lev Tokmakov “Mishin’s Gem”
Lev Tokmakov is a famous Soviet writer and artist. In the 1960s, he wrote a fictional story about a boy who one day came across a “transparent pencil.” The amazing thing turned out to be a rock crystal. And Mishka Kryukov, unnoticed by himself, plunges into a world that he had never even suspected of before. He meets geologists and falls in love with the science of rocks right before our eyes. In this short story you will meet with the Urals and its inhabitants. On the wonderful Ural soil, you can study mineralogy right on the way to school. Each stone has its own history and its own secret.
For children from 6 years old.
Profession: railway worker.
How to tell your child about professions
As you grow older, desires and preferences change. What is interesting to a child does not excite a teenager. It is important for parents to provide their child with the opportunity to test themselves in one area or another. You should not impose your opinion, it is advisable to give advice and support.
Children begin to enter the world of professions at the age of two. In kindergarten, the child’s horizons expand through communication with other adults and children. Tell us about common professions. They exist in everyday life; there are enough clear examples for a child: ✎
Kindergarten teacher
✎
Store salesperson
✎
Trolleybus driver
✎
Doctor at a clinic
✎
Cook
✎
Music director
At 3-4 years old, a child has a more in-depth understanding of surrounding objects: carpentry tools, equipment, dishes, clothing, an ambulance and others. He begins to understand the professions of his parents and the people around him. Reading fiction while simultaneously viewing illustrations will also broaden the child’s horizons. It is important to give the child knowledge about the specialty and its importance. Specific examples will make it easier and faster to learn information.
Children imitate their fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, cartoon characters, they want to become doctors, police officers, teachers, firefighters. Their choices are sincere and focused on the benefit of others.
During the primary school period, even more professions are open to the student, and in the middle classes, knowledge is deepened through the first career guidance classes and tests to determine interests. Career guidance
is a tool that allows you to understand which direction will bring success and satisfaction to a person.
Teenagers, for the most part, take a responsible attitude to the choice of their future profession: they enroll in specialized schools with in-depth study of individual subjects, and use new opportunities to enter a university. Among such events: ✔ Labor teams ✔ Children's camps - as a counselor, assistant ✔ Internships ✔ Master classes
From the age of 14, a child can begin to earn money, become independent, self-confident, and independent of their parents. Temporary part-time work will help in becoming a responsible person. Employment options: courier, promoter, distribution and posting of leaflets and advertisements, display of goods, online earnings (content creation, pay for clicks, comments, sale of crafts, handicrafts, etc.).
Is it necessary to choose a profession once and for all?
When I ask this question at a master class, ten-year-old children answer “No.” They saw their parents completely change their lives, leave their regular jobs and start their own business or get a second education. But not everyone has such an example before their eyes, so it is important to tell the child that it is also possible to change your decision. It’s normal to lose interest in something you once loved and start doing something completely new. Knowing this, it will be easier to choose a profession.
It has been proven that 90% of the skills that an adult possesses (the ability to play an instrument, knowledge of languages, etc.) were acquired during adolescence, mainly between 11 and 16 years old, when our cognitive abilities are focused on the external world. The more you allow your child to try during this period, the wider his horizons will be.
Lev Uspensky. A word about words
Lev Uspensky is a teacher, editor, writer, popularizer of linguistics as a science. His book “A Word about Words” has been reprinted several times. He knows how to kindle interest in the area of knowledge that he himself is fluent in. What sound is the most expensive in the world - what is the rarest? Where do the error words come from? And why is the letter called a scarecrow? Who is the “gloppy bush”? And much more.
This book will be useful not only for those who want to connect their profession with words - to become a journalist, teacher, linguist, but for everyone who is interested in better understanding the history of our country. After all, the history of a people and the history of a language are inextricably linked.
For children from 12 years old.
Profession: physicist
How is this done?
Children are very curious, and this must be taken advantage of. Invite your child to conduct a joint investigation to find out how a favorite doll, new pajamas, delicious candy or table service came into the world. Of course, it’s not worth going too deep into the process. The information that is published in children's encyclopedias will be enough for the baby. But this is enough to understand how much human effort was required to create ordinary objects.
When telling your child about professions, emphasize that the final product is the fruit of the work of many specialists. For example, in order for clothing to appear, you must first grow flax or cotton, harvest it, and use special machines to process it, dividing the stems into individual fibers. These will be spun into threads at a spinning mill. The weaver's threads will be used to weave a cloth. The seamstress will sew clothes that the driver will take to the shops. The seller will help visitors choose the most beautiful outfit. By treating things with care, we show respect for all the people who worked for their appearance.
Irina Kirpichnikova “Crystal Secrets”
Publishing House "Children's Literature"
This artistic and documentary story, unfortunately, has also not been republished since Soviet times. It talks about the famous Russian glassblower Boris Alekseevich Eremin. The whole life of the main character passes before us, who, from childhood, fell in love with the magical union of glass and fire. It contains a lot of interesting information about glass, about the techniques that glassblowers still use today, about dynasties in which the secrets of the craft were passed on from father to son. If a child, after reading this book, does not want to choose the profession of glass blower, then he will probably want to look at decorative glass, the best examples of which are kept in the Hermitage along with paintings by Rembrandt and Raphael.
For children from 12 years old.
Profession: driver.
Developmental tasks
When getting to know different specialties, use your imagination. Children love puzzles and role-playing games. At the same time, learning occurs unnoticed. For example, when playing shop, you have to pay money for purchases and count the change. The builder must build houses according to the plan, strictly observing it. The future captain has an excellent knowledge of geographical maps. A journalist knows how to take beautiful photographs and conduct interviews.
The profession of a doctor is very attractive for children; they are happy to treat dolls and give vitamins to their mother. But a real specialist must be well-educated and know the internal structure of a person by heart. In the game, such information is easily absorbed. Kids are ready to repeatedly make a diagnosis, looking for the correct name of the diseased organ on the diagram of the human body. At the same time, they begin to understand the importance of vocational education.
Simple rules
There are parents who prepare detailed lectures about professions for their children. However, kids are not interested in special terms, historical facts and long stories. The description of professions for children can be structured according to the following scheme:
- The name of the specialty, the benefits brought, the actions performed (in a generalized form, without details).
- Introducing the child to the character’s place of work, the tools used, and workwear. At this stage, it is recommended to use visual aids (pictures, presentations, cartoons, excursions).
- Emotional living of the profession. Children will enjoy listening to poems or stories that describe interesting incidents from the lives of geologists, firefighters, pilots, and archaeologists. They love to get involved in story-based play, cooking a real meal as a chef or doing their dolls' hair.
- Description of the final result. For the dentist it will be a cured tooth, for a seamstress - a new dress, for a farmer - grown vegetables and milk.
Hairdresser
Dad sits down in front of the mirror: “I need to get a haircut and shave!” The old master can do everything: He has been cutting and shaving for forty years. He quickly took out a pair of scissors from a small closet, wrapped dad up in a sheet, took the comb and stood behind the chair. He clicked the scissors loudly, waved his comb once or twice, and cut a lot of hairs from the back of his head to his temples. He combed his middle parting, took out the razor, and the soap hissed in the cup so that the razor would shave cleaner. The bottle with the inscription “Cologne” snorted cheerfully.
Nearby a girl is getting her hair cut, Two streams run from her eyes. The stupid girl is crying, Tears are hanging on her nose - The hairdresser is cutting the red braid with a comb.
If you decide to get a haircut, Crying is stupid and funny!
Border Guard
The border guard at his post protects the whole country, because he knows how to listen even to silence.
The birds fell asleep on the branches, The stars do not burn in the sky. A detachment of border guards was hiding at the border. Border guards do not sleep At the native border: Our sea, our land They guard the border.
Postman
A carpenter
Controller
As you enter the carriage, he will check your ticket, he will pierce a hole in it, and he will allow you to continue on. He will remind everyone delicately, so as not to travel for free.
Bakers
We will get up while you are sleeping, And sift the flour in a sieve, Heat the oven red-hot, To bake the bread by morning.
Baker
A baker walks along a narrow alley with a bun, And the sesame seeds glitter on the crust.
The wonderful smell of a bun flows over the alley, And everyone in the world wants to try the bun.
He baked a lot of buns, wonderful fresh buns, and gave each one a bun with sesame seeds.
Writer
We are all friends with books: Both you and I are readers. And, of course, we know what their writers write. It’s not easy to become a writer, Just like a musician, you definitely have to have talent. Like any profession, It has its own secrets: The hero acts in the book Strictly according to the plot. The author composes his story while sitting in a chair. There is no limit to invention - If only it were more interesting. He will send Dunno to the moon, like a magician, and make him fall in love with a magical country. From it they come to us: Winnie the Pooh, Malvina, Aibolit, Hippopotamus, Brave Chippolino. Here, at the desk, the place of their birth, All their adventures come to life under the pen. Now the line has been completed, And the book is ready... Girls and boys will probably read it!
What do crafts smell like?
Astronomer
What do you have?
Some were sitting on the bench, Some were looking at the street, Tolya was singing, Boris was silent, Nikolai was shaking his leg.
It was evening, there was nothing.
The jackdaw sat on the fence, the cat climbed into the attic. Then Borya told the guys just like that:
- And I have a nail in my pocket. And you?
- And we have a guest today. And you?
- And today we have a cat. Yesterday she gave birth to kittens. The kittens have grown a little, but they don’t want to eat from a saucer.
- And we have gas in the kitchen. And you?
- And we have running water. Here.
— And from our window you can see Red Square. And from your window, just a little bit of the street.
- We walked along Neglinnaya, went to the boulevard, they bought us a blue, blue, green red ball.
“Mom is more important than everyone else,” said Nata, “Mom is a carriage driver, Because Mom drives two trailers to Zatsepa.”
And Nina asked quietly: “Is it bad to be a dressmaker?” Who sews panties for the boys? Well, of course, not a pilot.
The doctor is treating us for measles. There is a teacher at school.
We need different mothers. All kinds of mothers are important.
It was in the evening, there was nothing to argue about.
