What do you do when your kids seem frustrated/stuck? They aren’t making progress, they are starting to blame each other or the MINDSTORMS itself for things going wrong, or they just plain seem to be out of ideas….

Here are twelve ideas shared by members of the FLL: Share & Learn group.

1) Give the kids a snack break. This always seems to ease the tension. Casual discussions over food can let to new ideas.

2) Watch a motivational 5min YouTube video. This acts as a small distraction that helps the team think of something else for a few minutes.

3) If the problem is stemming from some subgroups not getting along, tegroup and have them work with a different child for a little while.

4) “Park it and move on”. Come back to the idea later.

5) Use a visual board to help break things into manageable parts so that maybe others can come and work on something a student is stuck on.

6) Rephrase problems as solutions to avoid placing blame. Simple example: “I can’t open this” vs. “Can anyone please open this for me?”

7) Take a step back and do something fun!! Remind them about how far they have come and what they have accomplished so far!

8) Go and mentor FLL Junior teams - they will be inspired with confidence and come back and be ready to dive in again!

9) Go do some physical activity. Let them outside to run for 10 minutes, ride scooters, etc.

10) Take a break. Then facilitate a conversation to help them break up their problem into small chunks. Work on the smaller issues first.

11) Break problems down and pick ONE thing to solve. Instead of working on everything I try to get them to hone one thing.

12) That’s the perfect time for a quick break and/or a team building Core Values activity–a fun one.