Effective ways to make your children learn from their mistakes

Children are often afraid to make mistakes to a point that, when they do make mistakes, they feel worthless.

Step Up Education Centres aim at correcting that narrative and assures children that there is a gift that comes with making mistakes.

The centres are dynamic after-school remediation and tutoring franchises with a difference. It was established in 2016 and offers children an opportunity to succeed in a schooling system that is at times, unsympathetic.

From the moment a child walks through a Step Up Education Centre door they feel different; They no longer feel silly or stupid. They no longer feel misunderstood and judged. After just one lesson they feel hope and possibility and after a few sessions, they walk taller, feel smarter, and do better.

Step Up believes that every child has potential but it is usually clouded by their bad behaviour. Cindy Glass, owner and co-founder of the centres said,

“They [children] are so afraid of making a mistake that they would, subconsciously, rather get into trouble for their negative behavioural choices than allow someone to see that they need assistance. These children, too, develop feelings of unworthiness and their self- esteem is at an all-time low.”

Glass believes that it is time for parents and teachers to reconsider age-old patterns of previously learned behaviours, which have made the making of mistakes bad, intolerable, unnecessary reasons for punishment and a tool to humiliate and embarrass children in the hope that they will change for the better.

She has provided a list of advice on how parents and teachers can give their children the gift of mistakes:

• Allow children to make mistakes – Understand that making mistakes opens room for effective learning, creative thinking and build up confidence. Mistakes are opportunities to experiment and learn and they are actually a gift to humanity
• Teach children to recognise and acknowledge their mistakes – This helps them in finding solutions that work
• Teach children that making mistakes is a part of life – This way, they will learn that there is no such thing as perfection and will not feel worthless every time they make a mistake.

Parents and teachers need to understand that children are more likely to do what we do than what we say. How we react to mistakes will set the tone for the relationship that children develop with mistakes.

Glass concluded, “Mistakes can be a burden or a gift. The choice is yours to make.”

Also check out:

https://www.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/190918/jack-up-your-childs-emotional-intelligence-emotional-intelligence-is-important/