Learned the whole, praise the effort, not the outcome part early on.
Now DD is 5.5 and praising effort is not enough. I have a repeated message with her: the hare did not win the race. Yes, she is talented, yes, she can do things easily, but doing them well, not just doing them is importantly. Or outcomes do matter. And I hate that she learned this so early. I thought she would be 14 when she figured she got an 80 without opening a book, so who cares about a 95.
It comes out in the piano and also this year in the ballet. I notice her gymnastics coach and last year's ballet teacher wouldn't let her get away with just doing it. They pushed her to do what she could do and she tries harder. Or tried harder last year in ballet.
In piano, because you have that daily practice. She wants to just do it and get it done. "how many times do I have to play this piece?" With piano you do have to play over and over again to get the muscle memory of doing it right.
It is hard because she is very young but plays at a high level. She isn't passionate about it, though loves to be able to play fast and complicated pieces. She is just not that thrilled about perfection with piano. She isn't a perfectionist. She used to be worried about that sort of stuff but has lost it. Things are coming too easily for her. She is always done first at school and helps the teacher.
Yes, we are making changes next year. She did get the 99 for the OLSAT but we have to wait for a seat in the lottery June 4th.
Have a backup plan with accelerating the math and the local school has a good chess program so we can add that.
But I would like to hear from parents that have this same problem. Where they get how easy everything is for them and they don't have to make 100% of the effort and they don't want to do it as good as they could with work. Just do it.
Ren
