Walk away

Lara is learning to trace pictures at the moment. Tracing takes concentration and patience, Lara sometimes got frustrated when she couldn't get the lines right and she would scrunch up the tracing paper in anger. Sometimes the same thing happened when she couldn't draw the pictures she wanted or used the wrong colours. I can see how frustrating it was for her, but I wasn't sure how to teach Lara to handle her anger. It's no use telling someone not to be angry when they are angry. And it sets the wrong example if I get angry myself over her behaviour.

Yesterday Lara was playing with her birthday present, the Zhu Zhu salon. She couldn't fix the hair dryer on properly and I could sense her becoming frustrated.
Then I heard a loud sound. I thought toys were being thrown so I went to 'investigate'. I don't know exactly what happened but Lara said she didn't throw her toys. I took this opportunity to explain the consequence of taking anger out on toys. Then an idea came to me. I told Lara to try to walk away next time she could not do something or feel angry. I explained that she would calm down by walking away (plus she wouldn't have broken toys), then she could get back to it and try again later. I didn't know if Lara understood all these but I thought I would try anyway.

A while later, I was feeding Sam when Lara got up quickly from her drawing table and walked to the lounge. She told me excitedly later "Ma ma I walk(ed) away and I feel better now" Oh how hard Lara tried to be better. I'm very blessed to have such a beautiful little girl!