Photo credit: Stacy, Kids Stuff World
The Motherhood is thrilled to once again partner with GoldieBlox, a brand that is helping girls develop an early interest in learning STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) skills. Each GoldieBlox product features a fun story about a girl named Goldie, who has to solve a problem by building a simple machine. The products come with the same pieces Goldie has in the story, so girls can learn and build along with her. We love how Goldie encourages young girls to take risks, try new things and most importantly, never give up.
“The biggest reason for tears in our household are those of frustration. Tears of failure. Tears of being even too afraid to try. And I’ll tell you right now that no amount of saying to my children, ‘You can do it!’ – is going to make them really just try something again that they’ve failed at or were too afraid to try in the first place.” – Tracy, Sellabit Mum
Sound familiar to you? Unfortunately, fear of failure keeps many children (and adults!) from trying new things. Research shows that fear of failure is learned in young girls, not inherent, which means we can help reverse this mindset in girls!
Here are a few truths about failure that a group of awesome bloggers have been teaching their daughters using GoldieBlox:
1. Failure does not mean the end.
“It is so important for her to learn that failure is not the end! It is just a curve in the road. We talked about my failures. I fail all the time! But it gives me the push I need to keep going and try again. She has that same fire. I hope she never loses it! GoldieBlox encourages this too!” – Heather, Living on Love and Cents
2. Failure makes room for creativity and innovation.
“Sweet T hauled Goldie and her zipline equipment to her room for quiet time this afternoon and innovated on her own without my help! She doesn’t know what ‘tension’ means, but she couldn’t get enough of it to make her zipline work so she figured out a way to tie one end of the zipline to her rocking chair and move it around the room to get the tension she needed. I checked on her a little later and she had solved the problem of an unstable rocking chair by placing her giant stuffed Eeyore underneath to stabilize it.” – Jennifer, Sweet T Makes Three
3. Failure’s lessons will make you better the next time around.
“It’s important to me that my daughter knows that it’s ok to fail. Failure is what makes us do even better the next time around. Failure is what makes us be our best.” – Mellisa, Mom Luck
4. You can often avoid failure by remaining calm and confident.
“You know, it’s in the midst of trouble that our true character comes out, isn’t it? She began to get frustrated when she put the drum together, then realized the inside parts were not facing the right direction to finish putting it together. She had to tear the outside paper to get back into the drum to fix it. I wondered how this would affect her. Would she be disappointed? Discouraged? ‘Mom, we can just tape it!’ It was a no brainer! Problem solved. No biggie. There’s not much in life that we get right the first time, is there? Figuring out a solution without losing our cool is a great thing to learn!” – Esther, Laugh With Us Blog
5. Overcoming failure is empowering.
“Solving problems can make you feel powerful and GoldieBlox helps them achieve that feeling while having fun.” – Bridgette, Experimental Mommy
6. Failure is a part of life, and that’s not a bad thing.
“I love that GoldieBlox wants us to teach our children that failure is okay. Many great inventors and leaders failed, again and again. I don’t want my daughter to ever fear failure because failure can lead to innovation. We shouldn’t let fear of failure stop us from trying.” – Melissa, A Sparkle of Genius
“Knowing that adults don’t do well with failure makes it even harder to teach children about it. But as parents, it’s our responsibility to teach our children about failure. The sooner, the better so we can help them vocalize and overcome their failures from early age when those failures aren’t quite as significant as when they’re older.” – Kelly, Texas Type A Mom
Your daughters can experience Goldie’s stories while learning these truths, having fun and confidently growing in their STEM skills! Use coupon code Spring2015-2b8badcd to receive 20% off of any purchases on the GoldieBlox website. Hurry though, offer ends on April 5, 2015!
What lessons has failure taught you that you want your daughters to know?
