Like many, most children find failures and mistakes undesirable. But this month, the children in School-age 2 at RisingOaks Early Learning | John Sweeney learned that something cool can come out of accidents. Just like what the famous artist Bob Ross said, “There are no mistakes, just happy accidents.”
Before the holidays, the group gathered at a table excited to end school with a fun activity. We were going to make slime with Elmer’s glue, shaving cream, and liquid laundry detergent. We followed a recipe we found online and mixed all ingredients in a big bowl. Educator Tina started mixing. The children looked on with big smiles on their faces. They also offered to do the mixing, alternating with Tina as it was proving to be more and more tricky to activate. We added a little bit of detergent, our activator. It smelled wonderful! 30 minutes into the activity however, although the mixture looked “yummy” as the children put it (we added some blue food colouring), it was still quite runny. After many questions of, “Is it slime yet?” and “Is it ready yet?”, Tina and the group decided to call it quits. Unfortunately, the slime didn’t activate. The children were devastated.
Instead of throwing everything out and wasting a lot of materials, the next day, Tina brought out the bowl of foamy mixture and separated them into different smaller bowls. We added paint of various colors and invited the children to make foam art! It was a fun and messy activity. Although the children still wondered when they could play with slime, they were happy to be working with the foam painting!
Coming from the holiday break, we decided to give slime another go. This time, we changed some of our materials and used baking soda and contact lens solution as our activator. The children were determined to make it right. They stirred and stirred. We also used green, red, and blue food colouring. We added a little bit of our activator from time to time. After a few minutes, Maria put her hand into the bowl and started kneading the mixture. She delightfully exclaimed that it’s beginning to stretch and feel slimy! This encouraged the others who were starting to feel tired from mixing. The others joined in and braved touching the gooey mess. “It feels funny,” Rainna said. But soon, their efforts paid off. The slime activated! The rest of the group came over and were excited to have their turn to play with the slime.
This just goes to show that there is learning inherent in failures. As reported in the foundational document that guides the early learning practices in Ontario called the Early Learning for Every Child Today or ELECT, children earn a high sense of pride in their work and develop a positive attitude toward learning in the face of difficult situations. The children in our group persisted even when they were unsure of the outcome and despite the result of their previous attempts.
As we continue to observe their learning journey this year, we look forward to seeing the same persistence in the children to achieve success most especially in endeavors outside of their comfort zones. Will they become as determined to manage their anxiety, see through an activity, and complete the task? Similarly, will they find happiness in accomplishing something perceived undesirable in the beginning? Stay tuned for further stories of their progress!
