“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

Several recent occurrences at the Children’s School reminded me of the above adage and the importance of modeling it for our children. Our goals for Discovery and Exploration include a section that we call “approach to learning”.  In many contexts at school, we encourage children to be resourceful and maintain their positive attitude, accepting mistakes as part of learning, planning for tasks and completing them with persistence, even if they have to try multiple solutions before finding one that works.  Our kitchen renovation project has been on the back burner for several years because of the challenges of raising sufficient funds to cover the cost, but persistent efforts and openness to exploring new avenues has now yielded fruit and re-energized the work.

In preparation for the winter festival, a group of parents and I had an opportunity to relearn the adage’s lesson while building an igloo for the playground.  We planned ahead by asking families to collect milk jugs, searching the internet for igloo designs, securing the supplies listed, and recruiting parent volunteer igloo-builders.  We diligently worked for hours hot-gluing milk jugs together, trying various techniques, only to discover that the bonds were not very secure and that the glue cracked as soon as we took the igloo sections outside in the cold.  While discussing alternative means of holding milk jugs together and noting that duct tape would work well, Coleman Richards chimed in with, “You know, there IS clear duct tape.”  Needless to say, we had our solution, secured sufficient duct tape (actually white), and arranged to meet again the following day to construct the igloo.  During the process, we learned some things about how to best use the tape, how basic architectural principles work (and don’t work) with milk jugs, and that 500 milk jugs and 8 rolls of duct tape can be used to make an igloo big enough for 10-12 children.  We also had fun creating a novel play space that withstood both the weather and the heavy usage for a full two weeks.  Thanks to the following parents who helped build the igloo:  Ann Marie Ganovsky, Kristin Richards (and son Coleman), Johana and Chad Schafer, Carla Como, Patty Denko, Susana Traub, and Maggie Krell. Caroline Richards and Daniela Schafer also lent a helping hand on Saturday.

To children, it often seems that adults have all the answers, never make mistakes, and always succeed.  They will be encouraged in their efforts to persist in learning and accomplishing challenging tasks if we are willing to share our experiences with them.  Let’s look for opportunities to model a positive approach to learning at both home and school.  As always, we welcome you to observe the process here at your convenience.