Learning with Ease and Joy ~ Mary Dravis-Parrish

I did it! I did it!” What wonderful words to hear from a student as he suddenly realizes that he can do subtraction. I recently worked with a young boy with his math. He had the belief that subtraction was hard. Every time he had a math paper with subtraction put in front of him he would just shut down. It wasn’t that he couldn’t do the work, he just had picked up somewhere that subtraction is hard. In looking at that, one might wonder where he got that idea. He may have heard it from another kid, or he may have picked it up at home. It doesn’t really matter where it came from, what does matter is that the thought isn’t really his.
This can be an awesome awareness when working with kids. Many of the thoughts feelings and emotions that they sense are not really theirs. They are just so in tuned to other people’s thoughts, feelings and emotions that they can’t distinguish what is theirs and what isn’t.

With this young guy, we simply acknowledged that it wasn’t his, returned the thought that subtraction is hard to its sender. Then just for fun, we took all the energy around making subtraction hard and blasted it out of the Universe. I asked him what he would like for the subtraction to be now that we blew up all of the hard energy and he said that he would like to choose for it to be very easy. Again for the fun of it, we pulled in kites of easy energy. I love seeing what creative means kids will come up with to make this process so much fun. Once again I directed his attention to the subtraction paper, and wouldn’t you know it he did all of the problems in record time with a smile on his face! I am not sure who was more surprised by the ease with which he was able to do the paper, him or me!

Kids have a desire to learn about the world that they live in, but sometimes other things get in the way, like taking on other people’s thoughts feelings and emotions. Teachers, parents and others can mistake these things that intrude on learning as a learning disability or a behavior issue or even defiance. What if we could address the issues that are present and give the child a tool or two to use to change the issue then the desire to learn returns with ease and joy. This also empowers the kid to know that he knows with joy. This young boy found out that he truly did know how to subtract with ease. That is empowering.

Mary Dravis-Parrish, Author, Parent Whisperer and Host of Be You Parenting Radio show assists parents in knowing how to empower their children through the challenges of life. She is the author of Empowered Parents Empowering Kids, A Guide to Be You Parenting.   Her radio show, Be You Parenting on Inspired Choices Radio Network, offers tips and insights for today’s empowered parents. https://www.inspiredchoicesnetwork.com/author/marydravisparrish/

 More tips and information about Mary and her parenting services can be found at https://www.beyouparenting.com/

You can follow Mary on Face Book at https://www.facebook.com/beyouparenting/

And email her at ParentWhispers@gmail.com 

Radio Show Host of  Be You Parenting ~ Mary Dravis-Parrish: https://www.inspiredchoicesnetwork.com/author/marydravisparrish/