YES! With Journaling Your Preteen Geek Can Flourish— (We LOVE geeks by the way!!!) 😀

Some pre-teens have talents that might be considered unpopular by peers and other people. Perhaps your pre-teen is a very good chess or cello player. Or maybe your pre-teen belongs to the drama or debate teams and has demonstrated a high level of skill in these areas. These may not the most popular of pursuits for many people.

Unfortunately, these not-so-popular talents can become a source of ridicule by those students involved with more socially accepted pursuits like the football or cheerleading teams. This can especially be true for boys who show an interest in talents that may be viewed by peers as more of a feminine activity such as a cooking club.

School peers can be cruel when it comes to a pre-teen pursuing an interest that is seemingly unpopular to the larger group. A pre-teen can be labeled and ridiculed as a sissy or a geek when they have a talent or interest that few others pursue. This, in turn, can make a pre-teen feel that they are less than other students and, in some cases, cause that pre-teen to lose interest in or abandon their talent completely.

If your pre-teen is in this type of difficult situation take heart; there are some simple things you can do to help them along in developing their unique talents.

Encourage Your Pre-Teen To Write About How They Feel

Whenever a pre-teen is ridiculed, which will happen to a large number of young people, parents need to encourage them to write in their journals about how it makes them feel. If they feel disrespected because of their talents and interests they need not abandoned them because of others, but instead process what is going within them.

We don’t have control over what others think of us, but we do have every bit of control as to how we deal with it. One of the best ways to deal with our emotions and reinforce our belief in our talents is to write about these things in our journal.

Use The Journal To Set Goals

As we have seen it’s not always popular to be good at something and truth be known this idea can be applied to a large variety of talents and interests. If everyone listened to and bought into what others say about what they are pursuing we wouldn’t have the things we have today. The Wright Brothers were laughed at and ridiculed as being crazy because of their ideas and talents. Yet they had a goal and pursued it in spite of the discouragement they received from those around them. Indeed, they are credited with building the world’s first successful airplane!

Even though your pre-teen may be challenged by the views of others they must overcome and push themselves forward. Encourage your pre-teen not only to write about how they feel when being ridiculed but also to define and set goals in their journal. This is one way to help them to track their goals and achievements that they set out to do. When we write out our goals in our journal we will be less likely to be discouraged and swayed by the comments of others.