Make a Poster to Help Your Child Learn to Make Waiting Easier

Talk with your child about a time when they needed to wait for something, such as a turn on the swings or a turn to play with a favorite toy. Talk about how they felt. If needed, provide vocabulary words such as angry or frustrated to help describe different emotions.

Have a conversation about how waiting can be hard and takes skill and practice, just like it was hard for Cookie Monster to wait to eat his cookies on Sesame Street. Together, think of different strategies to help your child wait for something next time, such as counting or singing a favorite song.

Together create a poster listing these different strategies. Encourage your child to draw pictures next to the words. Hang the poster in an easy to see place! OR Make oatmeal cookies together and practice waiting for the cookies to bake! Talk about how long the cookies will be in the oven and things you can do together while waiting, baking, and cooling. Then enjoy a delicious and yummy "sometimes" snack!

Next time your child has to wait for something, ask what strategy they plan on using to help. How did the strategy help the time go by quickly?