My Mimi bless her little heart absolutely hates anything that is challenging. She says that challenges are "stupid" and "I like things that are fun and easy". Can you blame her? However I tried explaining that life is not always fun, fun, fun and easy, easy, easy. For example when she gets a new song to learn on the piano, she really does not like learning the new song however once she does learn and can play it well, she loves it and has her friends sit and listen to her play.
The other day she came flying home and said "Guess what mom? We had a discussion about challenges together with Ms. Greenfield today at school and she said that we do not have to challenge ourselves. Doing ok is just right. Plus she knows better than you!" Of course I smelled something fishy going on here. "I think not" I said. "Plus I am older than Ms Greenfield and I don't think that is what she said" "UH HU-UH!" answered little Miss Know It All.
Well, yesterday was my volunteer day and Ms Greenfield and I had a lovely discussion regarding this matter. What went down was this: Ms Greenfield was trying to explain to the children about challenging themselves in reading. She told the kids that if they pick a book that is way too hard is like lifting a very heavy weight, if they pick a book that is too easy that is like lifting a weight that is too light, but if they pick a book that is just a LITTLE HARD then that is just right. So when I told Mimi that I had spoke with the teacher and told her what she said, this is the look I got.
