Risk Taking & Trusting Yourself

We work not to push children to perform for us as adults. We refrain from saying phrases such as, "Show me how you can get across the monkey bars" or "Show me how far you can jump.” Those kinds of requests make a child's work on the monkey bars or jumping about the adult as an observer. Children become performers, rather than doing the activity because of their own interest and according to their own abilities.

For example, our teacher observed a student jumping from the side of the sandbox, where she was taking bigger risks than she had previously. When the student wanted to be watched, the teacher replied, "I see you."

But the teacher didn't make it about doing it for them; they watched her, then turned their attention to someone else. The student stepped up to the highest level, then stepped down, saying, "That one is too high for me." She jumped from the middle one, and it was just right for her. She said, "I'm not afraid of heights anymore!"

When we trust our children to measure and assess their own risks, they learn to trust their own bodies and instincts. They aren't jumping from the highest rung to prove something to us. They are much safer, and their reward for jumping is self-earned, rather than praise from an adult.