C.L.A.P. for two-year-olds: P is for Persistence and Patience

Note: C.L.A.P. is an acronym that I originally created to help me structure my maternal work with my children (sounds official, doesn't it?!) I realized, though, that it generally applies to children kindergarten-age and older. So, I have figured out other words to still fit the acronym but apply to toddler-ages (which means, they apply to me and how I can interact with them effectively). Today is the final installment, looking at the letter P.

My three-year-old and I host Preschool Club every Monday morning. We have invited several of his friends and their mothers to join us for 6-8 short activities, usually theme-based, like colors, shapes, the five senses, opposites, left & right, etc. etc. Oh, and of course, we have a snack, too!

One of the regular attendees is a 2-year-old named Zack (names have been changed to protect the innocent!) Zack is, thus far, an only child, though his mom, Kassie, is expecting another son in April. Bless her heart! One of her facebook posts said something like: "It's crazy getting beat up on the inside and outside at the same time..." That gives you a feel for Zack's temperament!

I would like to hold Kassie up as a prime example of our "P" words today! She is ever-so-patient with Zack. He is constantly looking for something new to play with, especially something with buttons to push. He buzzes around from one toy to the next, often after experimenting with how far said toy will fly at what trajectory...

He has a long attention span in an unusual way: if his mother removes an object from him, he will get it back. Over and over and over and over... and over. Kudos to Kassie, though, because she is persistent right back! As many times as he grabs it, she takes it away. She's awesome!

I'm afraid I have to confess that my children have worn me down much faster and persistence and patience are things I am still practicing... even on my good days, I realize that being patient is kind of like shaving my legs. No matter how well I do it today, I still have to do it again tomorrow...

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How do you keep your cool? What are your tricks to teach yourself patience? How about persistence? How do you get the energy to "win" when it comes to