Perseverance + Patience = Progress

I have decided it is time for my 3.5 year old to learn to write his name.  I have tried to teach this to him, off and on, for the last six months, but he has never been receptive.  I have decided, however, that his lack of reception is all about attitude and not about ability. So, I determined to start and not stop until this lesson is learned.


Yesterday, it took 1 hour to get him to write 3 capital D's.  That is one D every 20 minutes.  By the time we were finished, we were both stressed and exhausted.  Today, I almost talked myself out of this task, but I remembered my determination to not quit.  I reminded myself that the problem was attitude.  And I prayed for patience.  Here is our result after 35 minutes.

I was so pleased with him!  We had to have one "meeting of the minds" to convince him that he was, indeed, going to practice writing his name today.  Once he realized I was serious, he sat right down and worked at it.  He had many mistakes, and his attention would easily drift, but he completed the task, one letter at a time.  YooHoo!

As a reward he got to throw water balloons at a target I drew on our carport with sidewalk chalk.  This was great fun!

Afterwards, he took a paint brush and painted the carport with the water and sidewalk chalk mixture.

This has made me wonder what other things I am letting his attitude dictate we do or not do, as opposed to his ability.  And what is my attitude hindering me from accomplishing myself?  Attitude versus ability.  An epic battle, that today, at least, the good guys won.