Why Does My Child Need To Do Corrections?

Learning from our mistakes can be really difficult. We sometimes feel ashamed, embarrassed, humiliated, unworthy or any other emotion when we make a mistake. However, making mistakes is a part of life and as the saying goes “you learn from your mistakes”.  Mistakes are also indicative of a challenge that you have faced. Whether it is with a friendship, work, assignment, playing sport etc. It is an opportunity to challenge ourselves and grow. Learning from our mistakes in every facet of life can help to develop better judgement for the future.

A recent study from the Scientific American article  Getting it Wrong: Surprising Tips on How to Learn, found that enhances rather than detracts from learning.

During class time at Eye Level, your child may need to do “corrections” instead of their usually assigned classwork. You have to remember a few things when this happens:

• Corrections are a learning opportunity for you child to better understand the process or language – they may even figure out a faster or better way to complete the question
• Corrections provide an additional repetition instead of having to do the entire booklet again. Think of corrections as more practice
• Most importantly, corrections are an opportunity for your child to understand that no one expects perfection. The only thing that parents and Instructor expect is that they have a go at the problems to see if they can find a the right solution. Effort should always be more rewarded than perfection.

If your child makes a mistake, here are some tips on things you can do to maintain a growth mindset:

1. Never rescue them, help them to find a solution and praise them when they do
2. Acknowledge that you still make mistakes too, they will feel like someone else knows how they feel.
   1. Then explain the consequences and how you fixed them. Something they could use in the future
3. Remind them that you don’t expect perfection.
4. Encourage children to take responsibility for their mistakes and not blame others. Second to this is to develop the ability to admit their mistakes.
5. Mentor your child on how to apologize when their mistakes have hurt others.
6. Help your child look at the good side of getting things wrong!

See our other article on how to raise mentally strong children.