Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Where do I leave my children??? Where do I leave myself??

During a recent ML workshop, Therese asked the parents, "What is success to you regarding your child?"
I loved the answers.
In particular, was a response that a mother gave us. She had taken her child out of school after several negative experiences. She shared with us the struggle it had been to even introduce subjects back into her daughters life because she related the subjects back to the negative experiences at school. She looked at us all as we sat around the living room and said proudly, "Success for me is that my daughter sits beside me the whole time while I read her a book."
I think we all wanted to cry and clap our hands.
This mom had made so much progress with her daughter.
And most importantly, she had left HERSELF and her child in a place of success.

Leaving your child in a place of success is all about cultivating an attitude that wants to continue learning.
How many days have you and your child thrown the math book in the drawer, with a frustration-laced voice saying, "Fine. We'll just do the rest tomorrow." ?
Tomorrow comes and we are inwardly groaning as our child is avoiding the time spent on math. If our children's last experience with the topic was an exasperated effort, why should we expect them to greet the next opportunity with overwhelming enthusiasm?

What would it mean to your child if when you saw them struggling, you went back to where they last had success and left the lesson there? How would it change the outlook on tomorrow's lesson? Would you have time to prepare for Mediating Challenge the next day if you left the lesson in a place of success?

Seems rather ironic, but to go forward, you need to step back.

If there is one lesson you can walk away with today, it's this:
LEAVE YOUR CHILD IN A PLACE OF SUCCESS



Criteria focus: Challenge

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