I'm currently teaching kindergarten and a lot of teachers have told me in the past like “You're like a real teacher. You're gonna do parent teacher conferences.”, and I get a lot of these comments. I always think it's a little bit funny because they are a little bit clueless, or maybe a lot of it about what we really teach in preschool and kindergarten, and those are foundational skills that as kids hit in the older grades, the teachers don't really think about because they've already learned those foundational skills so that's kind of where I would like to talk to you about because it's the foundation of learning that allows learning in the home as well as in a school setting.

If your child is struggling going back to a school setting or some things like that, check out these foundational skills and see if your child has them. One of those first foundational skills is being able to make mistakes. Sometimes, these parents can protect our children or help our children in such a way that making mistakes becomes something that's not okay and that something they haven't experienced fully.

When our child looks at trying something, attempting something, doing something they might say they don't know how to help me then we come in and help them in a way that we do it for them rather than in a way that teaches them.

One of those basic foundational skills needed for learning is the ability to make mistakes and how we see mistakes because mistakes aren't something to avoid. There's something to embrace and to learn from but, children have learned that they might get a negative response from the adult or they miss out on praise if they make a mistake. Mistakes become something to avoid.

I have had students like when we need to take an assessment because their state required assessments. There's this process of monitoring assessments that we do and they get a lot of anxiety, or even if they don't have anxiety, they just don't know the answer and just gonna look at somebody else's paper. They're not okay with it, but here's the thing, when I give those assessments, it has nothing to do with the child. It has to do with what I do. Teaching in a manner that met this child's learning needs, and if they didn't learn it, then there could be behaviors or distractions or things at home that makes that more difficult for the teacher. But when the children understand, this is just to check where I am. Then they don't need to cheat. They don't need to feel down on themselves, or like they're not good, or that they can't learn.

It means that we get to continue forward and discover a way that's more helpful for them or teach. Focusing skills, attention skills or some basic skills that are even under some of the foundation to allow them to learn. It's not about judging the child, but the child can often feel judged. Mistakes are not okay, that's whether they didn't clean the dishes thoroughly or sweep in that one corner, or even if it's things at home.

If we judge our kids, then they lose that ability to make mistakes and be not just okay with it, but great with it like they are not avoiding mistakes. “I'm looking at my mistakes and I'm learning from my mistakes and I'm trying again.” Trying again is another foundational skill. I call that grit. I've got grit. I commit to keep trying and to keep learning. I've often heard it. I've got grit. I won't quit. But, our brain doesn't do great with the word.

To help see the knot, we can see what the student knows. I've got grit. I continue to commit rhymes. I'm committing in a positive way to learn and move forward and try again. Along with those two there is being able to handle or value uncertainty. They might not know it, but they’re going to try. They might not be sure what the answer is, but it could be their best guess or really have no clue. They’re gonna move on to the next question and get as much done as they can, so that's all kind of school setting.

Our brain loves to not be wrong and not to put an effort, but learning is building muscle, it takes effort. We cannot learn without effort. Just like we can't build our muscles without working out. You know whether that workout is in a physical way like chopping a tree. It doesn't grow if we don't work for it, and so we could say, learning takes place at school and maybe academic learning does, but it doesn't matter if we're doing academic learning or life learning at home with tasks and skills that have to do with social and interaction.

It's still an important part in both places, we're growing our learning muscles, just like you could do it at the gym or you could do it chopping a tray. You're still building muscles. It's a foundational thing to understand that our actions affect other people. We're not responsible how other people respond to us, but it's about how our actions affect others.

Our behavior and our choices affect other people. I just kind of wanted to point out those foundational skills. Learning is not about knowing ABC's, we had to learn those things. Remember, children are great by their very nature and we have that. Privilege and that opportunity and responsibility to raise them.