ARTICLE: CHILDREN LEARNING TO WAIT

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.

STORYTIME: The Rabbit Circle -- Part 1

Annie looked out the window. The rain had finally stopped and the sun was beginning to shine through the clouds. The grass and flowers glimmered with the raindrops still clinging on them. Suddenly she saw a small white figure hopping from the far end of her yard. It was a small rabbit with beautiful white fur. He kept on hopping and stopped under her window. How beautiful it was... Then a second rabbit appeared in the distance. He hopped toward her window too and stopped next to the first rabbit. Annie was amazed, she had never seen a rabbit in her yard, let alone two. She was still admiring the creatures when a third and fourth rabbit showed up doing the same: hopping from the distance and standing under her window. The four rabbits sat next to each other wiggling their noses and twitching their long ears. What were they doing?, Annie wondered. Then Annie heard a bell. It wasn´t a loud sound like her school´s lunch bell, but more of a twinkling sound. Like the sound you would imagine would come from a bell made of water. The sound didn´t stop but seemed to grow a bit louder each time. Then it stopped and a black rabbit appeared in the distance. He seemed smaller than the others but was quick at hopping towards them. When he got to the other rabbits they all started to hop in all sorts of directions for a few seconds, then they stopped. When they did Annie could not believe what she saw.... The rabbits had formed a perfect circle, right there under her window, and they were all looking up at her....
(Visit us tomorrow for the next part of The Rabbit Circle)

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. Kids love it and it´s quite healthy.