National Mentoring Month: How Parents Can Mentor Their Children

January 4, 2023 byConnections Academy

6 min to read

A mother is smiling after mentoring her daughter about how to success in online school

National Mentoring Month, celebrated each January, was started by the MENTOR organization in 2002 to bring attention to the power of mentorship and encourage people to become mentors. But how much do you really know about mentoring? And how can you ensure your child has the mentorship they need?

In recognition of this year’s National Mentoring Month, we’ve put together a list of what you need to know about mentoring and how you can provide mentorship to your child.

What Is a Mentor?

In the simplest terms, a mentor is a guide who helps someone develop the skills and traits they need to succeed —usually a young person. Mentoring is associated with positive outcomes for mentees, but not all types of mentoring are identical.

There are mentors who help students learn, mentors who help professionals grow their careers, mentors who help people overcome personal conflicts, and even mentors who help people succeed in physical challenges. But listing the fields that mentors work in is not as helpful as understanding how mentorships work and how mentors provide value.

Different Mentoring Formats

Some mentors offer mentoring in a formal context and some are more informal with their mentoring, but all mentors work in one of three main ways.

One-on-one mentoring: This is the most traditional and common form of mentoring, where a mentor provides in-person guidance and advice to one specific person. While these mentoring relationships can be formal, they are often more casual and tend to develop organically.
Virtual mentoring: This is a mentoring relationship that happens at a distance. In many cases, the mentee has signed up for formal mentoring and receives it via online video calls and/or email correspondence.
Group mentoring: This is a form of mentoring where one mentor helps a group of mentees simultaneously with only occasional one-on-one interactions. It’s almost always formal in nature and is common in educational settings.

A Learning Coach being a good mentor for a student.

Different Mentoring Benefits

While all mentors help mentees learn and grow, not all mentorship is focused on the same end benefit. Broadly speaking, there are four benefits that mentors can provide. Some mentors provide all four and some provide only one or two. These benefits include:

Developing a skill-set: Many mentors have mastered a set of skills and use their mentorship to pass down those skills to a younger generation. This kind of mentor is common in both educational and professional settings.
Building character traits: Some mentors focus on helping their mentees gain traits that will help them succeed in any endeavor. These traits include confidence, resilience, adaptability, and even persuasiveness and charisma. This type of mentorship is most common when the mentor and mentee know each other personally.
Offering partnership: Not all mentors work separately from their mentees. Some work hand-in-hand with them, partnering on a project or other task. This type of mentorship is common in team settings where one team member is significantly more experienced than another.
Providing context: Some mentors are very good at lending an ear and helping talk through situations with their mentee. While they often give advice, their more important role is to provide a mentee with a better sense of how a job, educational program, or the world at large actually works.

What Is the Difference Between a Mentor and a Role Model?

“Mentor” is sometimes used interchangeably with “role model.” But the two are not the same. Yes, mentors should be good role models, but not all role models are mentors. That’s because the qualities of a role model are different from the qualities of a mentor.

Being a role model isn’t about providing direct guidance or support. It’s about providing an example of how to behave. While mentors are often people who are directly in a student’s life, a child doesn’t need to know someone personally for that person to be a role model. They simply have to pay attention to the way they behave.

Examples of role models include athletes, actors, musicians, politicians, and other people in high-profile professions. But teachers, doctors, parents, and similar people who are close to a child’s daily life can also serve as role models. In fact, anyone in a position of authority or prominence can be a role model, even if they don’t consider themselves one. That’s because children innately imitate adults they admire.

So, what makes a good role model? There are a lot of factors but, in general, a positive role model lives a healthy lifestyle, demonstrates respect and self-awareness, and shows commitment to values and goals. People who do all of that can be great role models for children, even if they aren’t a mentor.

A Learning Coach being a positive role model for a student.

How to Be a Good Mentor to Your Child

You’re already a role model for your child, but how do you become a mentor to them, especially in their schooling? Knowing how to be a good mentor to a student is different than knowing how to be a good parent.

Positive parenting is highly associated with better performance in school along with better behavior and stronger mental health, but mentoring your child through the ins-and-outs of daily learning takes additional knowledge.

If you would like to be more of a mentor to your child as they progress through school, you may want to consider a tuition-free online school like Connections Academy®. At Connections Academy, you’ll have the opportunity to be your child’s Learning Coach—and you’ll receive plenty of support along the way.

Being a Learning Coach doesn’t mean you’ll be your child’s teacher. Connections Academy has certified teachers who are specially trained in online learning. Your role will be that of a mentor and facilitator.

You’ll help your child arrange their day, taking advantage of Connections Academy’s flexible scheduling. And you’ll be available to help your child as they learn and grow. Who knows your child better than you? With the numerous resources that Connections Academy provides Learning Coaches, you can help your child learn in the way that works best for them, all while partnering with teachers and staff to ensure your child builds the future they want for themselves.

Your mentorship can lead your child toward academic success. And it can also help them develop important character traits. When you’re there for your child as they learn, you can empower them to persevere, encourage a positive attitude, build their conflict resolution skills, and nurture their greatest strengths.

There is nothing as rewarding as mentoring your own child in school. Connections Academy gives you that opportunity and all the support you need to make it a success. Learn more about the ways being a Learning Coach can help your child grow with our article on helping your child become a self-motivated student.