ARTICLE: Learning to Wait - Mom can help!

It´s hard to make children wait these days. Thanks to modern day technology and the fast paced life we live everything has become "instant". From food to information everything is just a few seconds away. Remember when you used to want popcorn as a child. Your mother had to heat the oil, add the corn kernels and stir and stir, and wait and wait until they popped. Then you had to add salt and butter, and then you could enjoy them. Today: 3 minutes in the microwave and you´re done! Remember having a school assignment that you had to research. You had to visit the library, find the volume of the encyclopedia you needed, look up your topic, copy your notes to your notebook and then do your assignment. Today: google it and you´re basically done! Think of simpler things like thirst. If you, as a child, were thirsty in the car you had to wait until you got home for a glass of water. Today: just stop at a mini mart at ANY corner and buy a small bottle of water! The thing is, although all these things make our life much easier, children still need to be patient. What happens when the doctor is not ready to see you and you have to wait for an hour, or more? What happens when they have to wait until they´re old enough to attend a sleepover, or go to the movies alone or drive? How can we help? With the little things. One great idea: reading chapter books. You read one chapter every night and they have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens to Harry Potter or where the wardrobe took Lucy, Susan, Edmund and Peter to. Another great idea: baking. They can help you mix the dough but they will have to wait for the cookies to come out of the oven and then a little bit more until they´re cool enough to eat. I´m sure you´ll find other great opportunities to help your children be patient. Just keep this in mind: Good things come to those who wait.

DAILY RECIPE: Carrot Cream Soup

1 teaspoon finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon margarine

4 large carrots

2 cups water
salt and pepper

Peel, slice and steam carrots until tender. In a medium sized pot melt margarine and add onion until lightly browned. Blend cooked carrots with salt, pepper and half a cup of water. Add to onion and butter stirring occasionally. Add the rest of the water (more if too thick) and check for seasoning. Serve warm with cheese cheetos as croutons.

TIP OF THE DAY

Carry a small box of crayons and a small notebook in your purse. They will come in useful when waiting at a doctor´s office, bank or even during a traffic jam. Toddlers will love for you to make drawings for them. Young children can doodle. Older children can scribble games like tic-tac-toe and hangman.