Perseverance Activities for Kids

Help children learn the importance and benefits of persevering and simultaneously enable them to work on establishing self-discipline. Both of these qualities enable young people to develop self-confidence and grow into capable teens and adults who can adequately make healthy personal decisions. Set small goals for kids to accomplish and praise them when they meet their intended end result. A home-based chart where they receive gold stars for accomplished goals keeps wandering minds motivated.

  1. Story Time

    • One quick and easy way to convey the importance of perseverance to children is to read stories that teach the quality. Request that children act out the characters, performing their physical actions, as you read the story aloud. Drive home the idea you are trying to convey by having coloring pages accompany each story, or activity worksheets on hand for the class to complete, after story time ends. A few strong examples of applicable books include "The Tortoise and The Hare," "The Little Engine That Could," and "The Three Little Pigs."

    Collage Action

    • Engage children of any age with an art project that enables them to express their feelings about perseverance in a creative way. Hand out one piece of colored art paper, size 11 by 14 inches, to each child and instruct them to draw a line down the center of the page. Label the upper left side, "Persevering Rocks!" and the right, "Not Doing It!" Offer the class a variety of magazines to choose from and instruct them to search the pages for interesting images that reflect these two ideas. Glue images to the applicable side of the paper, allowing for overlapping if desired for additional visual artistic expression. Ask all children to write a couple sentences on the back of their collage that reflects a time they personally persevered when they didn't expect to and applaud them for their actions.

    Host Puppet Shows

    • Kids love puppets and as a result enjoy receiving information from these friendly characters in a non-threatening manner. Take advantage of this situation by hosting puppet shows and having students take turns acting out the plays. Offer up scripts that reflect a young person facing challenging circumstances, choices or obstacles and cover how they persevere through the difficult situation. You might consider finding biblical parables and verses that offer inspiring messages regarding learning how to persevere and integrate these stories and characters into your plays.

    Play Games

    • Many games offer the opportunity to help children learn about the art of perseverance and practice skills to acquire it. Croquet is one game where players are required to hit a ball with a mallet through small metal arches stuck into the ground. Like golf, the less strokes it takes you to get a ball through an arch the better your chances to win the game. The first person to pass through all the arches and successfully tap the end post wins. This game takes concentration, patience and an ability to be able to calmly plan your next move. Children often don't realize that while they are playing they are simultaneously practicing how to persevere every time their ball doesn't go where they intended it to.

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