A healthy family is built on good relationships. Maintaining good relationships with one's children is not always easy and requires conscious effort and skill. There is much that you as a parent can do to foster good relationships with your children. This includes:

• Making a conscious effort to build and maintain a sound relationship with your children;
  

• Making time to spend with them; and
  

• Spending time with them engaged in activates, playing games, having fun and helping them acquire new skills.
  

1. Providing children with the necessary knowledge, skills and characteristics to achieve success in later life.

2. Producing a bond of love, respect and understanding between parents and children through positive interaction.

The course is essentially a clear and practical step-by-step guide, which positively involves parents with their children - as partners. Children between the ages of 6 and 14 will derive the maximum benefit from the course and parents don't need to have any specialist knowledge of business.

The basis of The Ka-Ching! Business Parenting Course consists of a wide variety of realistic business projects, which parents and children take on together. In the process of carrying out the various projects, children acquire the critical business, financial and supporting skills, knowledge and characteristics in an enjoyable and challenging environment.

The Ka-Ching! Business Parenting Course a very useful, structured way to achieve the three goals mentioned at the start of this article, since it provides a vehicle whereby you can spend time with your children in the context of activity and fun while at the same time teaching your children valuable life skills.

How to use the course:

You will benefit most from this course if you adhere to the following principles:

• Keep your eye on the process not the content of what you child is learning. The experience gained in being part of a business project is far more important than the specific details of what they are doing.
  

• Keep your long-term intention in mind when working with your child. Do not expect your child to be the "perfect little person" or the perfect businessperson - these are long-term goals that take many, many years to achieve. See this exercise as a part of the process of helping your child grow and develop into a well-functioning happy adult.
  

• Allow your child to make decisions and to feel the consequences of these choices. Children need to feel that they have choices and have control over their lives. Wherever possible allow your children to choose - of course you can encourage them to think about the consequences of their actions and decisions and to make their decisions with full knowledge of what they are doing and the consequences of their choices.
  

• Build your child's confidence and self-esteem by stressing successes. Success should be measured not by the outcome achieved but by the amount of effort and the amount of learning that has taken place,
  

• Be aware of the messages and beliefs you transmit to your child about the world. Common messages and beliefs that parents pass on to their children include: The world is harsh. Life is unfair. People cannot be trusted. Life is full of opportunities. No matter what happens you will be able to handle it. People are basically kind and good. Some of these messages are negative and some are positive. What do you want your child to think about the world? What messages do you want to pass on? How are you going to pass these messages on?
  

• Make time to work on this course with your children. This time should be set aside and should be made a priority.