EP 26 - Benjamin Makes a Splash With His Abstract Art

Zara and Leo are on a mission to hear from YOU. Listen to the mini-episodes as Big Life Kids (our listeners) from across the world tell us about their amazing adventures.

In this episode, our listener Benjamin uses abstract art to find beauty in imperfect things and Zara and Leo create their own imperfect journals.

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In this episode, children will:

learn to find beauty in imperfect things
be inspired by our listener Benjamin

Supplemental Resources

Read

Salt in His Shoes by Deloris Jordan
Andres and His Rubik’s Cube Madness by Andrea Alvarez
The Hugging Tree by Jill Neimark
My Strong Mind by Niels van Hove
When You Are Brave by Pat Zietlow Miller

Watch

Fear Of Failure? Here's Why Making Mistakes Is Good For Your Brain!
Ending the Pursuit of Perfection by Iskra Lawrence TEDx

Activities

1. Read Chapter 2 "Mistakes Help You Grow" in Big Life Journal - Second Edition and do the fun activities. The science part of this chapter explains to kids that mistakes actually grow their brains!

2. Read the poem When I Make A Mistake (in the Growth Mindset Printables Kit) to help children develop a more positive attitude about making mistakes. You could laminate or frame it and place it in your children’s room, encourage them to memorize it, or use it as a cover or front page for a binder.

3. Read stories from the Famous Failures Kit designed to help children overcome the fear of failure. These stories of famous people teach about the importance of effort and perseverance on the way to success.

4. Use the Resilience is My Superpower poster (in the Resilience Kit) as a daily reminder for your children of their incredible power to stay resilient. Ask them to fill in the last three affirmations to make it more personal.

5. Use the 5 Reasons Why Failure Is Important poster (in the Resilience Kit) to demonstrate how failures help us learn. Our brains grow and develop in important ways whenever a failure occurs. When children understand this concept, they feel empowered.

6. Discussing the acronym FAIL (First Attempt In Learning). You can get a copy of the FAIL poster in our Resilience Kit.

7. Check out the Podcast Activity Kit for Seasons 1 & 2. The kit includes engaging activities to boost self-esteem, teach the importance of learning from mistakes, encourage resilience and more!

Discussion Questions

How did Benjamin create beauty from imperfection?
What would you say to a friend who is trying to make something perfect?
What is something in your life that didn't turn out as planned, but still ended up being beautiful?

For Parents and Teachers

Produced by Alexandra Eidens and Big Life Journal team. Written and directed by Sarah Cyrano. Sound design and original music by Elettra Bargiacchi. Sound mixing by Mattia Marcelli. Characters played by Sean Chiplock and Ryan Bartley. Managed by Kait Bibb.