Boosting your kids' confidence is very important to help them achieve their dreams and get more out of life. Confidence will enable them to get out of their shell, try new things and go for the things they want. Develop your kids' confidence early on with these simple tips:

Show affection – hugging is a simple and easy way to tell your kids that they are awesome. You can even be creative with today's technology. Send your kids an e-card or sweet text messages. You can even send them a letter on the virtual world that they play on.

Listen to your kids – listen actively. Make your kids feel that what they are saying is important and worth your time. This will make your kids share their thoughts more and gain confidence in expressing them.

Discuss issues with them – if you happen to catch a news report that interests your kids, have a discussion and see what they think about it. If they are logging on a virtual world, ask what they think about Internet safety and online privacy. Discussing issues will help your kids form opinions and gain practice in sharing them.

Be interested in the things that interest your kids – Know what shows they watch, what kind of music they listen to, what books they read and the online games and virtual worlds that they play. Do the things they enjoy with them. Support and watch their sport games or performances. This will encourage them to keep on improving.

Share daily activities with them – make your kids participate in daily tasks like grocery shopping or preparing a meal. Ask them for their input about what will be on the menu or what things to buy. Your kids will gain more confidence in their decision making.

Encourage independence – let your kids do things on their own and try new things. They will feel more confident with every success and mistakes will give them an opportunity to learn more.

Let your kids make their own plans – let them have their own strategies for achieving their goal. When kids play on virtual worlds,they go on quests to earn a special prize. In real life, they also take on quests such as doing a science project or joining an art contest. Let them figure out how they are going to do it. Just offer the needed support and assistance, then help them evaluate their process to see what works and what does not.

Let kids learn from mistakes – mistakes give experience and opportunity for valuable lessons. When your kids commit a mistake, don't just point out what they did wrong, you should also emphasise the lesson they can learn from it and offer advice on what to do next time.

Highlight strengths and assets – like every human being, kids are not perfect. Do not focus on their flaws, instead pay attention to what they are good at. By doing this, your kids will not dwell on what is wrong with them, but will keep on honing their strengths.

Make them earn things – instil in your kids the value of hard work and goal-setting. If they want something like a new toy or a subscription to kids virtual worlds, make them work for it. They will take pride when they achieve their goal and they will also take better care of it.

Confident kids will trust themselves more to take on obstacles and achieve their dreams. Shaping a child's confidence takes time, so start boosting your kids' confidence early and set them on their path to success.