Hoping someone has some suggestions to help with DDs homework meltdown! I've been in touch with her teacher this morning, but was hoping for some more ideas or things to consider!
DD is 8 and in Year Three. She is bright, but high average bright, not "gifted and talented" bright. She (usually) loves school and learning, but we are having increasingly frequent and intense meltdowns around homework.
Essentially, she is very perfectionist and cannot cope at all with making mistakes, or even getting a question that she finds really difficult. Just one mistake, one question that takes her a while to work out or needs a bit of help to answer, and she has a complete meltdown, loads of tears and refuses to do any more. Over the past week she has started to say she doesn't want to do the homework, which is really unlike her. But, she only wants to do it when it is easy for her.
We've tried speaking with her lots about making mistakes being ok and part of learning, tried modelling when we make mistakes or find things difficult. She will speak about her friends making mistakes and finding things difficult with lots of empathy and understanding, so I think she gets it. But when it comes to her, she has completely different expectations.
She swings between wanting things on a ridiculously easy level so she can get them all right, to wanting things on a very difficult level so she can "challenge herself" (yes, I've tried to say this isn't a sensible approach). Short term going for easier levels is ok to avoid the meltdowns, but at some point she is going to need to learn how to cope with finding things difficult and making mistakes.
I did speak to her teacher about this about a month ago, and DD spoke with her and said she was feeling better about it all. When not doing the homework she seems to get it, but when actually doing homework she just can't seem to deal with her emotions in the moment when she gets something wrong or finds something difficult.
Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks!