Why Winning and Losing is Important for Children

It is natural for parents to want to wrap their children up and protect them from the world. We don’t want our children to experience sadness or loss. We want them to have happy and fulfilling lives in which they thrive. To achieve this goal it is essential that children are provided with the opportunity to experience the successes and disappointments life throws at them. This will ensure they are given the opportunity to develop the strategies and skills to deal with the highs and lows that life will inevitably present.

Winning and losing are great opportunities for teaching children appropriate actions and reactions, and to understand the ups and downs of life. It gives kids a chance to slow down and take the time to figure out how to move forward and what to do to improve next time.

Many aspects of a child’s life are connected to competitions. Starting from kindergarten and all throughout school, some children do some things better than others, there will always be children who do very well in maths or always win when it comes to sports. It, therefore, becomes important for teachers and parents to teach children that winning and succeeding is a part of life, but also that to lose is equally important. By showing kids that losing is not the end of the world, children learn that life is full of second chances. It is also crucial to understand that even if children are not winning, they can still enjoy what they’re doing and learn from the experience.

Important life lessons learnt from winning and losing:

The World is Not Perfect

Children learn the stars will not always align in their favour. They need to understand how to handle a loss with anticipation that they might win in the future.

There is Always Room for Self-Improvement

Losing means children have not reached perfection and need to work harder to improve themselves. This helps deal with overconfidence and creates a sense of continuous self-improvement.

They Can’t Be Great at Everything, But They Can Get Better

Children pursue perfection in games, school, and other competitive activities. While this is good, failure tells them that it is okay to be good in one area and not the other. The lesson is key to forming mutually beneficial relationships with people around them.

They Must Always Try Again

Teach your children that losing is not the end of the road. They should give any event a second try after losing. Teach them how to learn from their mistakes and try again. Encourage them to try new methods and strategize their next win. Another tip is to congratulate them after every win, as this motivates them to try again.

Avoid the Blame Game

The blame game is a case where a child blames others or situations for their failure. They never admit to doing wrong. You must teach them to be responsible by accepting a loss and improving on it. Children should be taught the positive benefits of both winning and losing. While winning is associated with happiness and contentment, losing has essential lessons that can make a child a better adult. There are several reasons why losing and winning are essential. Here are the benefits of each.

Benefits of Winning:

· It increases a child’s self-esteem

· It makes a child feel proud of themselves

· It helps the child to think more strategically

· It encourages the child to work harder.

Benefits of Losing:

· It helps build resilience

· Children can learn various life lessons through losing

· It can help children develop empathy skills

· It assists children to build mental resilience

· It helps children learn from mistakes and learn to cope

In life, there will always be wins and losses. Your children should know how to cope with each result. Teaching kids how to win and lose well enables them to beat any challenge they meet later in life.

As part of some of our Year 5/6 students heading to Maryborough this year to compete in the Energy Breakthrough event, we are hoping to support these students by fundraising. The Paton Family have kindly donated a HUGE 10 Kilo bar of Cadbury's chocolate! Raffle tickets will be coming home with your children today. If you are interested in being in with a chance to win this gigantic bar of chocolate, then simply return the raffle tickets, labelled with your name and money amount ($3 for one ticket or $5 for three tickets) inside an envelope or zip locked bag, to the office by 9am on Friday 31^st May.
(extra tickets are available at the office).

The winner will be drawn at assembly later that day.

Our Mother’s Day Market on 12^th May was a huge success with 1922 people attending.

The Mother’s Day Run, which ended in fanfare at the market, had 145 participants and was enjoyed by all.

A HUGE thank you to all the volunteers who worked on gates, the set up and pack up crews and BBQ volunteers. We could not run the market without the support of the community and are very grateful for your assistance.

This month the 5/6 Level were rostered on, and we also thank those people who filled the gaps in the roster. It was a busy day for many families with Mother’s Day and sporting commitments which made volunteering tricky for many. We appreciate everyone’s help and the $1000 that will be allocated to the 5/6 Level will be used to support educational resources and activities to support students.

The Energy Breakthrough Team ran the Egg and Bacon BBQ and were sold out by 10:30am due to the huge demand on the day.

We look forward to seeing you all at our next long weekend market on 9^th June. Prep are rostered on for this market so please keep an eye on Compass so you can sign up to help out on the day.

Wear it Yellow is a way for Bonbeach Primary School and community to support Children’s Ground during National Reconciliation Week (27 May to 3 June 2024).

Children’s Ground is led by First Nations communities who are creating a different future for the next generation of children.

“Children’s Ground operates in Central Australia and the Top End of the Northern Territory. Our 25-year strategy for long term change comes from decades of experience, evidence and First Nations design. We integrate key services across 5 areas of wellbeing: Learning, Health, Economic Development, Community Development and Creative & Cultural Development. Families want their children strong in their language and culture, to have a great education, to be healthy and emotionally well and to have employment as they become adults. Children’s Ground is working with communities to make this a reality for the next generation of First Nations children.”

We are asking all Bonbeach Primary School and Community members to ‘Wear it Yellow’ on Wednesday 29th May, 2024. To help support this important program, we ask all students to bring a gold coin donation.

All funds raised will go directly towards supporting Children’s Ground and delivering self-determination, education, health and employment opportunities for First Nations people.

We are seeking volunteers to assist with the distribution of Scholastic Book orders. Books are delivered monthly and need to be sorted and delivered to the student’s classes so they can be taken home.

This should take no longer than an hour and can be flexible.

Please contact the office if you are able to assist with this.

We thank you in advance for your help.

Last Friday, the Environment team went with Mrs Ballos to Carrum Primary School for the Big Green Schools Conference. There were lots of schools represented by their Environment Team. We participated in many activities to raise the awareness of the importance of the wetlands, sustainable gardens, and watched presentations from Carrum Primary students about their work in the local community, such as cleaning up their streets and Carrum Beach.

After recess, were did a few rotations based on the environment for example, we did ponding which involved scooping up pond water to see the bugs under the microscope. We saw their chickens, and fed their goat, Pebbles. We also took a cutting of sweet potato, and planted it in small pots that we were able to take with us.

We had a lunch break, and then had time to brainstorm a sustainability project that we would like to do at our school. As a group, we decided on a theme which is Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, and presented our ideas to the other schools.

“I thought the day was an amazing. My favourite part was when we did ponding.” Casey Z.

“I thought today was a great learning experience. My favourite part was Pebbles the goat.” Zoe F.

“I thought it was an amazing day, they had very yummy plants, and my favourite part was Pebbles the goat”. Joel P.