Explorations Early Learning

Jul 21, 2014
1 min read

Our job as parents, grandparents, and caregivers is to help children learn to competently assess and manage risk, not to try to rid their worlds of all possible risks. These skills are used daily throughout life and practicing them also helps young children develop confidence, grit, perseverance, and more. What does learning to assess and manage risk look like in action? Here's an example: I went adventuring with Grandbaby yesterday. We found a pond, a dock, and sticks to throw for Hershey The Chocolate Lab. After walking on the dock a few times with me, Rowan decided she needed to give it a go on her own ("stay Papa! Me do it!"). She had assessed the risk and was feeling confident. I had done some risk assessment of my own (still water, only about 3' deep) and knew she would be fine. She ventured all the way to the end, yelled at some fish, and rushed proudly back to me ("I did it Papa!"). Later, she was getting a bit cocky and lost her balance near the edge of the dock. For the next few minutes she was extremely cautious about her movements. Both her confident walk to the edge of the dock and her stumble were valuable bits of learning that will help her as she learns to assess and manage risk.