In my last post, Growth Mindset: Flexibility, I introduced what is commonly referred to as a Growth Mindset. I talked about how having this mindset can help students learn and overcome adversity, such as what we are experiencing right now. A few parents reached out asking for resources on how they can instill this mindset in their child. I will be covering the growth mindset stances - resilience, perseverance, flexibility, empathy and optimism - in separate posts with guidance for families.
In general, picture books are great teaching tools. While it may be tempting to just read the book from cover the cover, pause occasionally to ask probing or connecting questions. "How would you feel if you were in a similar situation?" "How is the character feeling? How can you tell?" "Have you ever faced such a problem? If so, how did you deal with it?" Before reading, start by having your child make predictions based on what they see on the cover and reflect on their prediction afterwards (i.e., "Did it match your prediction?"). And definitely save time to discuss the book at the end.
Here is a great list of books that relate to growth mindset:
These are popular titles among teachers, so your child will likely have had some of these books read a loud to them already. That being said, most children enjoy being read to even if they have heard it already. Please let me know if you are interested in any of these titles and I will figure out a way to get it to you.
