I found this very interesting article about praise and gifted children today. The gist of the article is they have found that children will try harder tasks if they are praised for their ability to try something and not for being "smart." It goes further and talks about the relationship between praise and self-esteem. I can't even count the number of times I've told the kids "wow, you're smart" after they've completed something! And after having them at home for 2 months now I was beginning to wonder why sometimes they had a difficult time wanting to try new things. I'm going to have to run our own little experiment at home and see how things improve by just changing the kind of praise they recieve.
Today the kids started art classes. They loved drawing African animals and should finish their projects in a couple more sessions. The morning was very busy with classes, and we got a lot done!
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