1733 sats \ 1 reply \ @endothermicdev 21 Feb \ on: How resilient are you? meta
I love the idea of a GRIT camp and your work with these kids. It reminds me of my experiences (and now my son's as well) with boy scouts. Some of the best memories are built on hardship and resilience in the face of it. Just a few off the top of my head:
- Setting up camp in a downpour.
- Camping in the snow when the temperature is -18°C.
- Getting lost in the back country while navigating with a map and compass and having to backtrack for hours.
- Completing a week long backpacking trek.
- All sorts of cooking disasters
One of the things we have the scouts do after every campout or high adventure is "roses and thorns." It's a time to reflect on the hardships and the highlights of the trip for each scout. In addition to describing a highlight (rose) and hardship (thorn) the scouts also come up with "rosebud" for something they're looking forward to next time. I think this time for reflection is very useful - a chance to put things in perspective and consider that, no matter how much one may have complained the previous day, everyone not only got through it, and nearly always made some good memories in the process. It's incredible what a difference even a single outing can make on a teen. I've seen a couple of them come back as almost an entirely different person.
Thank you for sharing! Today was breaking camp, and I stole your highlights and hardships phrases (I have a thing for alliteration) to remind my kids to acknowledge the negatives but focus on the positives. From then on, I got them to unpack the word “resilient”. What qualities does it actually refer to? After dragging some responses out of their tired minds, I was able to establish that being resilient means being positive, proactive and determined.
We then learnt how to tie a paracord from the instructors. Everyone, including me, really struggled with the task at first. But many of the kids got it sooner than me and were able to finish tying their paracord. Some of them even taught me. Glad to see how the teacher now becomes the student
reply