Drawing at the Volunteer Park Conservatory. (A good outing for littles, only $3 to get in, and that's a suggested donation. There were fewer benches to sit on than I'd remembered though.)
Verisimilitude:
I'm genuinely blown away by much of my girl's recent artwork, though I did notice that sometimes she would dash off a drawing and then look at me expectantly for praise. (Though, really, I'm not so sure her behavior is all that different from keeping a blog... Hm...) I'm generally skeptical of the attitude that praise is bad, but still, it did give me pause. Where is the line, you know? How do you express genuine joy at your kid's accomplishments while making sure that they pursue those accomplishments for their own sake?
Anyway, the conservatory is conveniently located near a park/playground for getting out the wiggles.
Demolished!
Ooh, such a careful and beautiful drawing, and certainly worthy of praise! I don't think the idea is that praise is bad per se, just that praising hard work and effort -- even when it results in failure -- can be superior to giving praise only for perfect outcomes. :) At least, that's what we try to practice.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alexis! And good point about praising even when the effort results in failure. I'll try to do that more going forward. (Though I wonder if she tends to be too disappointed to really hear a positive message at such times. I'm afraid she gets a hopeless perfectionism from both sides!)
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