Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy goldilocks syndrome/perfectionism and Kumon?

Good luck with the meeting bk! I'm glad you are advocating for a reasonable challenge, I agree with everything you are saying about inadequate challenges leading to underachieving in the future.
I have been working with both the kids on this.

When DD5 was so upset about making mistakes and was about to quit, I asked her why is it that every pencil in the world has an eraser on the top. She thought for a minute and then started laughing. That's right, I said, If no one ever made a mistake the pencil making company would go out of business and a whole lot of good people would lose their jobs!

It seemed to do the trick.

Marching onward in battles against perfectionism.

Neato

If anyone has any other tips or tricks--especially for dealing with a sensitive pre-K GT child who suffers from both perfectionism and RE (rampant emotionalism), I'd LOVE to hear it.

Dealing with an older child's perfectionism is plenty hard. But dealing with the wild emotions of a not-yet 4yo perfectionist is darn near killing me!

Here is what worked for me in dealing with RE way back when. I'd keep my mouth shut and my arms wide open. We'd hug without me saying a word for several minutes. As soon as I opened my mouth the RE would start again. Keeping mouth shut was the hardest thing for me, but it really worked.

Brilliant! No amount of words can stop the RE when it reaches a certain point and I love the idea of open arms instead of the arm extended with palm outword, like a cop saying "STOP". BTDT a couple times

'Neato,

I LOVE the pencil analogy! I'm stealing it immediately!
aline

No need to steal, I givith freely and willingly!

I also think the pencil analogy might come up in our house too. I think it will make lots of sense to DS5.