As a parent, I am often trying to find the narrow space that lies sandwiched in between my kids' comfort zones and their overload/shut down zones. In teacher speak, I'm looking to live in their ZPD. This is the space where my kids experience productive struggle. I'm constantly trying to widen this space by creating experiences that stretch my kids, that push out the boundaries. Often it means inviting them to do things they don't think they can do. Sometimes this means walking together through their fear of [fill in the blank] and their frustration, of holding them through tears, and then talking through failure and feedback into learning and growth. I try to be intentional about the variety of ways I probe this narrow lane of productive struggle. Outdoor adventures are an absolute favorite. But productive struggle is learned so many different ways. This goes for everything from hiking to swimming to cooking to biking to speaking Mandarin to cleaning toilets to sharing toys. What I've learned is that the muscles of productive struggle don't always transfer from one thing to the next without intentionally creating the connection. One child might naturally persevere when outdoors climbing rocks and then crumble into a ball the second they can't sound out a letter on a page. Another might try and fail without giving up repeatedly while building a Hot Wheels track, and then chuck their pen at a wall when they can't solve one math problem. This is why, even after a day of adventuring, my kids do a few pages out of their @HIghlightsforchildren Big Fun Summer Workbooks and also spend some time reading. For me, this is less about the content than it is about the academic (and life!) mindsets I want my kids to develop. I hope they connect the play learning with other types of learning too. They'll need to be able to embrace productive struggle in all aspects of their lives. Check out one example of this struggle in my stories! Love the @Highlightsforchildren resources for this kind of learning. Link in bio to learn more! #HighlightsDoGreatThings #HighlightsPartner #HighlightsForChildren #HighlightsMagazine #MyHighlightsKid #FunWithAPurpose #ShopHighlighthsStyle