Patience
A Lesson From Nature
Patience - An introduction to character education.
Do you expect everything to happen right away? Try learning something from nature and practice patience.
If you plant a seed, water it well and then wait, the seed will slowly grow into a little sprout. It will keep growing and growing until it becomes a nice healthy plant. This process can't be rushed. Things like the growing of a seed into a little plant happen only when the timing is right. My dad knows this from growing ferns and orchids in Miami and wildflowers and trees in North Carolina.
Learn how to practice patience and your life will change right away. Water your inner seed of patience. Take care of it and watch it grow. You will feel it grow if you are paying close attention.
If you are a dog and you hear a strange sound outside, pause and reflect on that sound. Be patient. You may then discover that the strange sound you hear is being made by your mom and dad coming home from work to greet you. You see? If you were not being patient, you may have thought the sound was made by a stranger and you would have gotten a little nervous all for nothing.
When you are late for school;
are in a line and then someone jumps in front of you;
miss watching a cartoon because you woke up late; or
have last minute changes to important plans - what do you do?
Do you get angry?
Try to look at each of these situations in a different way than being angry. Think of them as opportunities to learn, grow your inner seed, and practice patience.
How do you do this?
Believe in trust and accept things. Choose a positive attitude. Focus on the life you are experiencing right now. It doesn't matter what is happening - just be here and involved in whatever you are doing. Open your heart. Breathe and smile. This is my introduction to character education.
My Mom's Lesson for Teachers - Patience
Expectations: Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Define patience
- Demonstrate patience
- Take steps to practicing patience in every day life
Activities:
Discuss the meaning of patience. Include words or phrases such as
- Waiting calmly
- Taking turns
- Hurrying
- Self-control
Read a story about a person who practiced the virtue of patience.
Talk about table manners. Why is patience an important virtue to have at mealtime?
Learn to name the days of the week in order. Learn to say the months of the year and the seasons of the year. (Gaining perspective about the passage of time is necessary to the developmental process of learning patience.)
Watch the second hand on a large wall clock. Watch it until it goes from 12 all the way around and back to 12 - that is one minutes.
Play a game that requires taking turns and being patient, like Simon Says.
Practice learning how to tie a bow, zip a jacket, tie shoe laces, open and close an umbrella, etc. Discuss the patience necessary to do these things correctly.
Week-long activity:
Name an event that will take place in your classroom in several days. Name the days of the week. Name the day of the special event. Count the days as they go by. Talk about being patient and looking forward to something happening.
Homework:
- Make a booklet of pictures of times when patience is needed.
- Practice taking turns doing things and waiting for attention.
- Practice saying, “I can wait a little longer.”
Patience Project - Cultivate a Butterfly Garden
At a local toy store, nature store or garden store , purchase a kit for a butterfly garden. Directions inside will assist you in ordering a package of larvae for continuing the process of cultivating your butterflies. Follow the directions very carefully to create the optimum environmental conditions for development of the larvae into each of the stages - larvae, caterpillars, cocoons, butterflies (about three weeks). Have the students observe the process daily. Make note of the changes observed, count the number of days involved in the full process. Read the story of “the butterfly” at the appropriate time in the process. Think about the necessary steps for the butterfly to develop its full potential. On the day when the butterflies emerge from the cocoons, plan an outdoor event to set them free. Write a haiku (5-7-5) to say aloud as the butterflies are released. Consider the patience that exists in nature as well as in all of us.
