Yesterday I helped a 6-year old boy in Primary Church who was doing a crossword puzzle. The clue was, "City where the temple was built" (they had been learning about the temple that day) and there were 9 spaces for letters. He asked me for the answer, and I told him, "Jerusalem." He thanked me and proceeded to fill in the squares, each with one letter, with "GROSRLMMM."
He's going to go far in life. Because he's not a perfectionist, stunted by fear of failure, and he's not lazy either. He uses the limited spelling skills he has at age 6 and makes his solution work, even if it means ending a word with three consecutive m's. It may not be the prettiest solution, but it gets the job done, and he's okay with that.
And of course there was another clue that intersected the word and didn't logically fit. He didn't care; he just wrote the new letter over the old.
I've seen kids who just didn't care about the answers. I've seen kids who care too much, wanting to make sure every detail is right before they move on, and getting frustrated if they make a mistake. But I've never seen a kid motivated to finish and being okay with his mistakes. Especially not a kid willing to ask for help (like the answer to the question) and then attempt the rest, the "not as important" part, on his own (like the spelling.)
I have a memory of being 6 and coloring pages and asking my mom ten times in an hour how to spell my name, because I just wanted to make sure I got it right. It didn't matter that I pretty much had the spelling memorized; it didn't matter that I could look at other pages for references. I didn't trust myself not to make a mistake, even at 6.
Poor kid, he has no idea that he's being psychoanalyzed. =)
He's going to go far in life. Because he's not a perfectionist, stunted by fear of failure, and he's not lazy either. He uses the limited spelling skills he has at age 6 and makes his solution work, even if it means ending a word with three consecutive m's. It may not be the prettiest solution, but it gets the job done, and he's okay with that.
And of course there was another clue that intersected the word and didn't logically fit. He didn't care; he just wrote the new letter over the old.
I've seen kids who just didn't care about the answers. I've seen kids who care too much, wanting to make sure every detail is right before they move on, and getting frustrated if they make a mistake. But I've never seen a kid motivated to finish and being okay with his mistakes. Especially not a kid willing to ask for help (like the answer to the question) and then attempt the rest, the "not as important" part, on his own (like the spelling.)
I have a memory of being 6 and coloring pages and asking my mom ten times in an hour how to spell my name, because I just wanted to make sure I got it right. It didn't matter that I pretty much had the spelling memorized; it didn't matter that I could look at other pages for references. I didn't trust myself not to make a mistake, even at 6.
Poor kid, he has no idea that he's being psychoanalyzed. =)
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