...or, at best, don't work quite as well as expected.
If you've experienced the joy of watching Discover & Do, you may remember the many Outtakes included at the end of the DVD. (Aside: If you have the DVD but haven't watched the Outtakes, I highly recommend them. Of course, I cut them together, so I'm a little biased <smile>) These Outtakes were moments from shooting when things didn't quite work.
Sometimes the "fail" was epic.
Like the time the seeds we were using for the experiment titled "Grow, Grow, Grow!" never grew at all. Or when the invisible ink didn't come back. Makes it a little hard to demonstrate the activity when the very foundation of the lesson falls out from under you.
Trap Door
But while these failed experiments can make you feel like you're falling through space, there are important lessons to be learned. Stuff doesn't always work out the way you would hope. You can do things wrong. Mistakes happen. And sometimes, life just doesn't go the way you expected.
And that's okay.
The important thing is to move on. Don't let yourself stay in the place of "failure". Instead, get up, try again, or move on.
That's a lesson we need to remember as adults as well: If something isn't working--even failing--don't let yourself stay there. Set it aside for a while, try it again after you've thought about why it didn't work, or move on to the next thing. There are too many great opportunities in life--and homeschooling--to let the things that aren't quite working stop us.
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father
