Resilience Week 2026
Thursday: Managing Mistakes with Resilience
It was a terrific Thursday!
Today's lesson was focused on how we can manage our emotional experience when we make a mistake. Blaming others to avoid taking responsibility or holding onto to guilt for extended amounts of time are painful and exhausting. Following the "5 I's" is a powerful way to learn and move forward!
Fruit Salad!
It's fun to start the day with a group game! Fruit Salad is kind of like musical chairs and gets the kids moving!
Sticky Note Challenge
Today's sticky note challenge was to remember ways to break free from conditional thinking, aka The "If ... Then" Trap. Conditional Thinking limits our access to problem-solving, creativity, healthy self-advocacy and happiness. The kids' responses included "Choosing to be happy," "Remember the highlights" and "Deep breathing."
Managing Mistakes with Resilience
Today's Adventures in Wisdom™ story was about a boy named Danny who remembered every mistake he made and felt totally discouraged. He carried his guilt with him and eventually decided he would just stay in his room to avoid making any more mistakes.
Wyatt the Wise Wizard™ gave Danny a big rock for every mistake he'd made and instructed him to carry them around for a week, adding more as he made more mistakes. Danny believed this was punishment for making mistakes, but Wyatt kindly taught him that it was symbolic of the weight he carried when he didn't resolve the experiences, but rather, held onto them.
Wyatt taught Danny the "5 I's" to help him process the mistakes and find peace again. The kids got to learn and practice this powerful strategy as well!
The "5 I's" of Handling Mistakes
The 5 I's help kids to take responsibility for their actions, empower them to make amends as much as possible, see what they can learn from the mistake and improve on necessary skills, and then let it go!
I taught them a hand gesture for each of the 5 I's as a way to help them remember them.
Group Games
Today we played Fruit Salad, Poison Dart Frog and 4 Corners! We love game times between learning segments!
Group Challenge!
We've had several challenges this week that involve communication, teamwork, balance and problem-solving! This was a fun challenge that stumped the kids at first. One of our campers came up with a brilliant idea for creating a more stable base and the kids were so proud to finally build a free-standing tower using all the pieces provided!
Mindset Machines!
The kids were given plain boxes to turn into Mindset Machines that can help people handle mistakes! With pipe cleaners, pompoms, straws, color cardstock, tape, scissors and glue, they got to be as creative as they wanted to be! I love what they came up with! They LOVED this activity!!
Click through the Gallery to see what they created!
Summary Poster
The kids got to add to the poster "I can manage my mistakes!" They recalled examples from The 5 I's and also had good ideas of their own.
Be sure to use the daily Take Home Sheet as a way to discuss with your child what he/she has learned. It helps to reinforce and internalize these healthy new strategies when they can teach it to you and the rest of the family!
There's no such thing as a one-time quick fix -- repetition and practice are key!
