Persistence and problem solving are two skills that are very important.\u00a0 While they can be taught and are worked on extensively in school, some children naturally have these skills and others just don\u2019t.\u00a0 I have one of each.<\/p>\n
Example of a non-persistent child<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Honeybun\u00a0pulls out the sock monkey matryoshka dolls we have (nesting dolls, 6 sizes of sock monkeys that split into tops and bottoms and fit one inside the other).\u00a0 After 2 minutes of trying to figure out how to match and nest the dolls, she starts complaining.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know how to do this, this is too tricky.\u00a0 Mommy, can you do this for me.\u201d\u00a0 After another 30 seconds Honeybun\u00a0exclaims \u201cI can\u2019t do this!\u201d and storms off to another activity leaving the poor monkey bits strewn about the floor.<\/p>\n Example of a persistent child<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Sugarplum pulls out the stacking cups.\u00a0 She works at trying to get them to nest together.\u00a0 After about 10 minutes she starts banging the cups and lets out a sigh of frustration I encourage her by saying \u201cSugarplum, you need to find the biggest one and then the next biggest and put them inside each other.\u201d\u00a0 Meanwhile, I finish a blog post, collect laundry from the dryer, count her underwear for our upcoming trip and locate the missing pair, dig out new cold weather pajamas for both the girls and begin folding laundry.\u00a0 Throughout I hear the cups tinkling as she continues working at nesting them.\u00a0 50 minutes after starting the cups Sugarplum wanders into the room where I\u2019m folding.\u00a0 She helps me hang up her dresses and I ask her if she got the cups all stacked.\u00a0 She replied \u201cmy back huwts\u201d (she has this complaint a lot, usually when she sits for too long with her head hung over an activity) but when I wander through the play room I notice the cups properly stacked.<\/p>\n These two events happened simultaneously.\u00a0 After abandoning the monkey Honeybun\u00a0helped me with the laundry and every time I would say Sugarplum’s name (usually referring to a piece of her clothing to Honeybun) she would reply \u201cI\u2019m doing the cups\u201d.<\/p>\n Zero to Three (which is the National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families) has some great suggestions for building persistence which include:<\/p>\n\n