Ultra-fast connections, 24-hour deliveries, everything within reach of your smartphone: can today’s children be able to wait?

Nowadays, children live in a world in which life or services’ quality depends on speed. They got used to having everything immediately. Otherwise, they seem disconcerted and confused.

Waiting for the turn to cuddle a doll or wanting a pair of shoes that will arrive on birthday is important to acquire patience. Is it possible to educate today’s children in this way? Even if they are used to having things even before desiring?

Read the article below to find some suggestions to teach children the value of the wait.

Learning to wait for means knowing how to appreciate the value of things, have self-control, and also recognize the needs of others.

At the beginning of the last century, Maria Montessori wrote wonderful pages about education in the sense of community and the value of waiting.

According to Montessori’s view, every classroom must contain only one object by type. That is it. One brush to print, one doll to comb, one tower to build, etc. If a child finds the activity of interest unavailable, they will have to wait until it is free. While waiting, children train patience and respect for others without any adult having to teach it. This way of managing activities does not preclude shared work and collaboration that can arise spontaneously.

You can adapt this model at home, and if you have only one child, you can regularly hide some toys or tools to instill the desire for something and say: You have to wait a little bit.

In this way, you help them measure themselves against their desires and enjoy more the fine things in life. The immediate gratification of trivial things indeed can make children lazy to pursue bigger goals.

How to behave to teach children the value of the wait

To educate in sharing, relationships, waiting, parents need to build occasions by which children can feel the desire for something. Start from the organization of their space.

One bicycle, one ball, one doll: it is not mandatory to have everything double or triple.

You can choose a few beautiful, well-kept, and interesting objects that allow them to experience a stimulating but not suffocating or hype-stimulating environment. Children can live in a room with a few toys, letting some spaces free for creativity, study, and research.

In a family, when two adults are talking, they can ask a child who wants to talk to wait the turn and then, once got it, give her all the attention deserved. Remind that kind ways of asking help children to better accept the request, which should be an invitation and not an imposition. Thus parents show children how to behave with others if they happen to find themselves in the same situation.

You can also establish precise rules for the use of television and tablets. Planning the daily moments helps children to understand the pattern of the day.

Do not anticipate children’s possible frustrations: they are necessary for learning to manage emotions. You only must be there for help.

Benefit from Christmas time

There are a lot of practices to teach patience, but we would like now to focus on one that calls back the great expectation of Christmas gifts. You can use Advent time to teach children how to wait.

There are many Advent calendars and many ideas of how to make them at home. You can make it with cardboard and scissors in hand, involving children in a papercraft activity. Along with candy, it might be a nice idea to include some actions to be carried out during the wait of Christmas. This helps children to realize the passing of days and time.

One example of activity could be a family afternoon out to choose Christmas balls to hang on the tree. Involving children in choosing makes them enthusiastic!

Another one could be to bake together the family cake. If you don’t have a family cake yet, it is time to find the recipe right away, ready for the moments to share. Children love making cakes or cooking together with their parents.

Or simply, play together.

Roleplay is perfect for sharing fun family moments. You can tell your own story of cops and robbers with a fantastic police station playset! Remind to exchange the roles to foster the wait in children.

Or what about creating a little town starting from the railway building for a train to cross through? Do you know that children, assembling the track, learn patience, concentration, the concept of space, and cooperation? They also learn the foundations for problem-solving skills. With Railway Bucket Builder Set, the fun starts unpacking all the pieces you and your children must connect with patience. Children can also arrange the pieces differently each time. This has a great effect on their imagination). That is why trains are perfect for inspiring children to find renewed fun with their old toys and regulate new desires.

Even tidying up can be one of the activities of your Advent. Did you like cutting all the ingredients and cooking the best family lunch in All-in-1 Kitchen? Good! Now it is time to tidy up together so that the kitchen is ready for tomorrow’s playtime.

Create new family traditions and try to manage children’s desire to unwrap Christmas gifts.

You have to unwrap them at Christmas! Sometimes parents are more impatient than children, to make them happy as soon as possible. In this way, children don’t elaborate on the wait and desire management and cannot deal with frustration.

What about creating your own Advent calendar as a way to teach children to wait? We love this idea!

You still have a few days to design it with your little ones before December arrives.