I love Ross Burach’s humorous picture books - Truck Full of Ducks and I Am Not a Chair! If you are learning about metamorphosis, this is a cute and funny story to read to your kids. My class kids enjoyed watching how impatient the caterpillar was, wanting to become a butterfly instantly.
I took this opportunity to introduce the concept of self control. We discussed ways of controlling our anxieties and eagerness. They watched how the impatient caterpillar regains his self-control before transforming into a butterfly. They commented that when the caterpillar was impatient, he didn’t get what he wanted. The caterpillar meditated, he paused, refocused and assessed.
In a world of parenthood where one can’t avoid instant gratification, adults need to deliberately delay wish-lists for no other reason but to teach patience. Infusing delayed gratification teaches children to develop self control. As a teacher, I often tell my students, “I wanted to buy a new book just released this weekend, but I don’t really need it as I still have other books I have not read; so I decided to wait until I have finished reading my stack of books.”
Available for borrowing from public libraries in Singapore (Call Number: BUR).
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