“If we are not willing to fail, we will never accomplish anything. All creative acts involve the risk of failure.” -Madeleine L’Engle

I read somewhere that you should always praise your child for working hard at achieving something rather than for “being smart”. “Being smart” creates an idea of perfectionism and causes a child to have a fear of failure and not being “smart” anymore. If you create the idea that if you work hard at anything you can achieve anything, the child learns that anything is possible and won’t be afraid of trying. I’ve done both but now that I know the consequences of both, I’m going to try hard to praise for working hard. This option is much better than the other. I don’t want my kids to be afraid of failure. I think sometimes that is my handicap. My father always told me I was stupid and although it had the opposite effect of making me try harder to prove him wrong, it did affect my self-esteem at times and made me cognizant of “failing to be perfect”.

We worked on B’s school project called “Fantasy Island” today. I sketched out his vision of “Pokemon Island” which consisted of Pikachu and Skitty. We then painted the ocean, lakes and rivers blue. Then he mixed a recipe of dough, salt, and water to make the landforms. We used food coloring to make the grasslands and mountains. I printed out a key on a Pokemon card and a compass rose on a pokeball. We then made labels for all the different landforms – they were all pokemon names. It was fun. C also made his own landforms which consisted of a volcano and whatnot. He managed to put all the toothpick labels correctly on the corresponding landforms without any guidance. Sheer luck or sheer genius? The jury is still out on that.

We went to Spectrum food court for a quick bite to eat at Wasabi. Then we went over to Barnes and Noble to check out the kid’s section while C went on the Merry go round. We tried looking for the rest of the Deltora Quest books by Emily Rodda but they didn’t have it. They had some other series by her. B only has 1-5. Later on, we bumped into P & Austin. They just came back from Taipei (his grandfather’s 80th bday). Chatted a bit – seems like I wants to become a flipper instead of a Pilates instructor. He told her that she had to become a realtor first if she wanted to do that since the profit margin is slim after realtor commissions. Might as well earn the commissions herself. He seemed to think Socal is immune from the RE market. Is he the only one? Possibly.

Watched “Little Miss Sunshine” with A after the kids went to bed. Was quirky and amusing although not the Oscar type movie I thought it would be. I think people are just ready for a happy light hearted movie with meaning. *goes to write the script for the next big thing*

While B and I were waiting for the elevator he mentions to me that this was a different kind of elevator. I stare at him blankly wondering what on earth he could mean. The elevator seemed like a typical elevator to me, nothing special about it at all. I ask him to explain. He said that there was only one door that slid open to one side instead of the two doors opening up. Wow – he boggles my mind sometimes. I can’t help but be proud of him.