I wish I could remember the author/visual of this simple idea-- it worked better for my seven year old than anything else we tried.
The premise-- a pyramid (probably the best visual), divided into three parts.
The first part (bottom) is labeled something like "beginning," the middle "learning," and the top "mastery." Checkmarks in each part represent the number of mistakes-- a lot for beginner, some for learning, and few or none for mastery.
My son could visually see when we were starting something new. He would note that a lot of mistakes are expected in the beginning, some while we learn, and few/none once a topic is mastered and we're ready to move on.
It's not my idea- but it works well for us.
