Raising Growth
Prologue
As I sit here pondering what to do with my Adaptive Mindset paper, I find myself wanting to scrap my original concept and start fresh with a new topic. My original paper had become a complex puzzle with too many pieces scattered about. None of which seemed to fit together quite right. This made it hard for my reader to envision the picture I was trying to paint with my piece. Having explained my struggle, I would now like to draw your attention to my current topic. How I will raise my child to have a growth mindset. Moving forward, I will be explaining how I am already in the process of guiding my son toward possessing a growth mindset.
Project
Before Nicholas was crawling, he would get on the floor doing what looked like the worm only he was doing it backwards. In my efforts to get him going in the right direction I would sit across the room holding his favorite stuffed animal that he still carries to this day. This created an incentive for him to move towards me. After repeating this method a few times I had a baby who was crawling on all fours in the forward motion.
Now that Nick was mobile I faced a whole new set of challenges. He could now stand holding on to tables, chairs, even my leg sometimes providing him with a crutch to take a few steps. I could see that he was ready to set out on the journey of walking alone on his own two feet. Taking a few steps here and there then plopping on the ground was only the beginning of this venture. I would sit a few steps away from him holding out my hands. In a high pitch voice that only a mother can achieve I would encourage him to move toward me. Come on, you can do it, your almost there! These were the crumbs I dropped knowing his little brain would gobble them up propelling him in my direction. Before I knew it I had a ten month old who was stumbling all over the place.
With the establishment of mobility I came to the realization that Nick was lacking in the verbal skills department. He would make these gurgling sounds that I can only equate to that of Chewbacca from Star Wars. Nicholas was very good at using this sound to grab your attention then with his hand gestures communicating his wants. As a parent I needed more ways of understanding what he wanted. After leaving the Broomall Carnival on a Sunday afternoon I asked Nick to clap his hands if he had fun. I’ll never forget looking back at the car seat and seeing him sitting there with a big smile clapping his big little hands. I then tried something else with Nick. I held out both of my hands, giving each a designated name, for example my right hand was PBJ and my left was a cheese sandwich. I then asked Nick to point to which he wanted to eat. He took his big little finger and pointed to my right hand. I then incorporated these working methods into our daily conversations. One night we sat on our couch and actually had a whole conversation with Nicholas never saying one thing.
By the time Nick was two he still hadn’t spoken a word. Concerned about my little boys status I called in Early Intervention for backup. We were given a checklist of things that needed to stop. No more sippy cups, straws, and we had to work on stopping the thumb sucking. All of these things caused the tongue to become lazy. This made it hard to form words. Every day I incorporated the new skills into our routine. It would prove to be beneficial to Nick’s progress.
Nicholas is now a healthy, happy four year old little boy who loves to run. He can even tell you that himself these days. He has mastered the skill of saying mom or mommy at least twenty times in one minute. He is talking so much in fact that I forget sometimes how I prayed every night for him to say one word. We are now working on his pronunciation of certain letters. When we are driving he will say, Mom look at that tool tar. I will say, it is cool but it’s not a tar it’s a Kuh and Nick will use that prompt to reply in his tiny little voice with Kuh-Car.
Nicholas is receiving homework assignments in Pre-K. Every week he gets a letter that he has to trace several times. When we sit together he begins to trace the letter with a little help from me. There has been two times were he has dropped the pencil to the table saying that he can’t do it. I calmly pick up the pencil placing it back in his little big hand and reassure him that he can do anything that he puts his mind too.
Epilogue
My hopes are that I was able to demonstrate to my readers how I am raising my son to have a growth mindset. I wanted to express it in a way that didn’t require me to write the words growth mindset in each and every paragraph. Being there to guide my son in the right direction throughout his life should provide him with a sense of comfort. I feel it is important to have a parent who faces an obstacle head on, which in turn instills a growth mindset in our little ones.
As I sit here pondering what to do with my Adaptive Mindset paper, I find myself wanting to scrap my original concept and start fresh with a new topic. My original paper had become a complex puzzle with too many pieces scattered about. None of which seemed to fit together quite right. This made it hard for my reader to envision the picture I was trying to paint with my piece. Having explained my struggle, I would now like to draw your attention to my current topic. How I will raise my child to have a growth mindset. Moving forward, I will be explaining how I am already in the process of guiding my son toward possessing a growth mindset.
Project
Before Nicholas was crawling, he would get on the floor doing what looked like the worm only he was doing it backwards. In my efforts to get him going in the right direction I would sit across the room holding his favorite stuffed animal that he still carries to this day. This created an incentive for him to move towards me. After repeating this method a few times I had a baby who was crawling on all fours in the forward motion.
Now that Nick was mobile I faced a whole new set of challenges. He could now stand holding on to tables, chairs, even my leg sometimes providing him with a crutch to take a few steps. I could see that he was ready to set out on the journey of walking alone on his own two feet. Taking a few steps here and there then plopping on the ground was only the beginning of this venture. I would sit a few steps away from him holding out my hands. In a high pitch voice that only a mother can achieve I would encourage him to move toward me. Come on, you can do it, your almost there! These were the crumbs I dropped knowing his little brain would gobble them up propelling him in my direction. Before I knew it I had a ten month old who was stumbling all over the place.
With the establishment of mobility I came to the realization that Nick was lacking in the verbal skills department. He would make these gurgling sounds that I can only equate to that of Chewbacca from Star Wars. Nicholas was very good at using this sound to grab your attention then with his hand gestures communicating his wants. As a parent I needed more ways of understanding what he wanted. After leaving the Broomall Carnival on a Sunday afternoon I asked Nick to clap his hands if he had fun. I’ll never forget looking back at the car seat and seeing him sitting there with a big smile clapping his big little hands. I then tried something else with Nick. I held out both of my hands, giving each a designated name, for example my right hand was PBJ and my left was a cheese sandwich. I then asked Nick to point to which he wanted to eat. He took his big little finger and pointed to my right hand. I then incorporated these working methods into our daily conversations. One night we sat on our couch and actually had a whole conversation with Nicholas never saying one thing.
By the time Nick was two he still hadn’t spoken a word. Concerned about my little boys status I called in Early Intervention for backup. We were given a checklist of things that needed to stop. No more sippy cups, straws, and we had to work on stopping the thumb sucking. All of these things caused the tongue to become lazy. This made it hard to form words. Every day I incorporated the new skills into our routine. It would prove to be beneficial to Nick’s progress.
Nicholas is now a healthy, happy four year old little boy who loves to run. He can even tell you that himself these days. He has mastered the skill of saying mom or mommy at least twenty times in one minute. He is talking so much in fact that I forget sometimes how I prayed every night for him to say one word. We are now working on his pronunciation of certain letters. When we are driving he will say, Mom look at that tool tar. I will say, it is cool but it’s not a tar it’s a Kuh and Nick will use that prompt to reply in his tiny little voice with Kuh-Car.
Nicholas is receiving homework assignments in Pre-K. Every week he gets a letter that he has to trace several times. When we sit together he begins to trace the letter with a little help from me. There has been two times were he has dropped the pencil to the table saying that he can’t do it. I calmly pick up the pencil placing it back in his little big hand and reassure him that he can do anything that he puts his mind too.
Epilogue
My hopes are that I was able to demonstrate to my readers how I am raising my son to have a growth mindset. I wanted to express it in a way that didn’t require me to write the words growth mindset in each and every paragraph. Being there to guide my son in the right direction throughout his life should provide him with a sense of comfort. I feel it is important to have a parent who faces an obstacle head on, which in turn instills a growth mindset in our little ones.