Alina's Beading Process

Several months ago I could see that Alina, my 12 year old, was resisting working through a project that was not turning out the way she wanted it to and her countenance was down.  I learned that I needed to purposefully encourage my children to be willing to persist, and I told her that many things in her life will take practice in order to turn out the way she wants them.  I explained to her that every time she makes a mistake she learns and if she isn’t willing to make mistakes she isn’t allowing her learning process to happen.  I encouraged her to be thankful for mistakes as they give her opportunities to develop perseverance. 

About a year ago Alina thought she would give beading a try.  She has a good eye for design and after Sereina, her oldest sister who had dabbled in beading, gave her a few pointers, she made a few necklaces and earrings, but didn’t pursue learning any more about beading.  I noticed that she came to a point of setting aside the beading until fairly recently.  Nearly a month ago, I noticed Alina was all spread out with her beading supplies and busy for several hours.  She eventually came to me to show me her finished project.  All on her own she came up with the idea to make something new and found an online tutorial for making beaded flowers.  She explained to me the process that she went through, encountering problems such as having the wrong type of beads, the wire breaking just as she finished one flower, and having the wrong size of bead which required a need to improvise.

 As she explained her process to me I helped her see how her education was being worked out in this project with each problem she encountered.  She beamed and smiled ear to ear.  She went on to create a modified flower that she shaped and added wiring to look like a butterfly.  She then came up with smaller flowers, making two of each and turning them into earring sets.  This process had given her confidence and the idea to make a dragonfly for her brother’s birthday, since he has an interest in them.  She found a tutorial and once she was finished, she was so amazed that she was able to make something so beautiful and then made two more, giving two to Daniel and keeping one for herself.

As we talked more about all her mistakes and how she persevered, I explained that her character is being formed through this project and others that she works hard like this on.  When I asked her for more details for this blog post, she told me that in the past she had challenges with crocheting and drawing.  When her projects didn’t turn out right she would get mad and quit, believing she would never get it right.  Alina now realizes she should not have quit.  She told me that when she faced her beading project, she saw how cool it looked in the tutorial and was determined to get it right no matter how many times she had to redo it.  She told me that she use to want things to turn out right on the first try and, since that hardly ever happened, she was discouraged, but now she has learned better and is willing to give crocheting and drawing another try.  Alina now knows that she can use this same determination in any project she approaches.