What do you do with a…
A handful of months ago, I was looking for birthday gifts for my daughter. We already have too many toys and I wanted to avoid any more clutter, sound familiar? Having just finished 1st grade, we were still learning how to “do school” because quite often, she likes to fully embrace that whole “you do you” thing. Don’t don’t get me wrong, I love her desire to do things her own way, to be creative in her process of choosing which pencil to use (this can seriously take a whole minute or two, which in pencil-choosing time is 3 hours and 47 minutes and tests my patience like I’m sure you can imagine!), and her stubbornness – yes, even that! I believe in the future these very things that drive me bonkers now, will serve her well as an adult allowing her to pave her own beautiful roads and be steadfast in her ability to stand by what she believes. In real-time, real life though, yes, this makes parenting very challenging at times! So begins my search for the magical book that will help me with this 7 year old but of course, doesn’t exist. What I did find though would start me down a path of discovering the growth mindset and from that, I think my three most favorite books ever! Not to mention, a fantastic birthday gift for Naomi 🥳
What Do You Do With An Idea? What Do You Do With A Problem? What Do you Do With A Chance? Author Kobi Yamada and Illustrator Mae Besom have crafted something that I will share with my children for the rest of my time with them. Aside from that, they embrace the most simple lessons that I will continue to apply to my own daily life and through that, share with my students. You see, sports and athletics give participants the opportunity to come up with ideas and strategies, face problems and challenges, and provide chance after chance after chance after chance to grow, learn, fail and succeed. It seems only fitting then to use these books that share these very lessons so beautifully with the skaters I’m hoping to inspire.
If I could manage to give all my students this set trust me, I would! Unfortunately that’s not really feasible which is why I’m sharing them with you. With the holidays approaching it would certainly make a convenient gift although sometimes, I find that gifts such as this are best given for no specific reason. They are not challenging and will definitely be below grade level for many of my students, but the messages still read the same. So much so that I will be purchasing the set for my son, a senior in high school, for Christmas this year.
Braveness & fears, problems & opportunities, self doubt & confidence…all relevant and valuable lessons on the ice and even more so in life. And while we can’t rely on a few simple books to magically change and shape our children’s lives, we can certainly hope they inspire and help us make those teachable moments a little easier to teach! I hope you enjoy them as much as my family and I have 💕
Happy Skating 😃⛸️
P.S. I find “What Do You Do With a Chance” to be my favorite as it relates to what we do on the ice. Every day on the ice is a chance to learn more, skate better than you did last time, and be braver than you were at the last competition. A chance to let your excitement be bigger than your fears and a chance to fly as you glide across the ice and jump through the air!