Mistakes are ok!

Many gifted children fear making mistakes. Either they have perfectionist tendencies, or if they'fail' at something they may experince imposter syndrome (the feeling that they are somehow a 'fraud' and probably not really gifted).

This week we used the America's Cup races to discuss failure / mistakes. We talked about how we feel when we make mistakes, the fact that people all handle this in different ways, and most importantly what we can DO if we make a mistake or if something doesn't go to plan.

We looked at items that were invented by mistake - silly putty, iceblocks, potato chips, microwaves etc. 'Mistakes are the portals of learning'.

We read a great little book called 'Beautiful Oops', which is all about making the most of our mistakes - changing them into something good.