Parents often come to me and say they're scared to "mess up" when working with their children. They're afraid of making a mistake with their little one and ruining their positive association with learning, or doing it "wrong". My answer you may wonder?
There's no way you can "mess up" if you lead with positivity, kindness, and honesty. When parents or caregivers get involved in their child's enrichment, it's not only a way to connect, but a way for a caregiver to understand their child's learning style. In fact, children are learning so differently than the generation that came before, you may notice things that were unclear before may make sense to you now!
Most importantly, it's ok to say you don't know. Some of my best teaching moments have been when a child asks me a question and I don't know the answer. This experience, this moment is important for so many reasons:
- It shows children that adults don't know everything.
- It creates an opportunity for you and the child to figure something out together- you both just learned something!Â
- It allows a child to feel confident to say, I don't know how to do something.Â
If you still feel scared, start small! Color along side your child and just chat, you'll be surprised how much teaching and learning can happen just through a short conversation with the child you love.Â