Love Monster's 'Plant a Seed Day' episode, is a great example of learning to be patient and whilst you’re watching, take advantage of pointing out some key points to your child. Here are some ideas:
1. Comments such as β€Love Monster is finding it hard to wait for his seeds, isn’t he? And then relating it to them personally β€do you find it hard to wait sometimes?β€ This helps to encourage reflection and insight and also sets them up to notice when they might need help to be patient. This episode is also a wonderful example of imagination, something young children are great at. Encourage their creativeness by pointing out that imagination has no limits β€Wow! A hot chocolate flower! If you could grow anything what would you grow?β€
2. Connect emotions to bodily feelings: notice when your child is struggling with patience and be curious about how it affects their body. You could say β€It seems like it’s hard for you to wait, what is happening inside your body?β€ Help them observe if their legs are twitchy or they are jumpy like a jellybean. Connecting feelings and bodily responses helps children further understand their emotional experiences.
3. Tolerating impatience: When you notice your child is struggling, you can remind them of Love Monster finding it hard to wait for his seeds to grow and being frustrated that TFB’s seeds had grown quicker. Help them to manage this emotion by getting them to remember what happened in the end – Love Monster’s seeds grew too, and they were amazing. You can say β€I notice it’s hard to be patient at the moment, let’s think up some ideas to help you wait.β€ You could try ideas like distraction, helpful thoughts such as β€I can wait’ or β€It won’t be long’ or make up little games to play whilst you wait together.
Go to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer to watch Love Monster's 'Plant a Seed Day' episode.
