A touch of perseverance… I didn’t participate in the “lesson” but my husband was working with our eldest daughter to assemble a Christmas gift (a robotic lizard with which she will be learning simple coding to instruct it to move and stuff).

This was not a super easy project even though it was labeled as age appropriate, but they patiently persevered step-by-step. They took breaks and came back to it. It was very cool to see our often hot-tempered, impatient daughter quietly working next to her dad over a period of hours.

And then- disaster! Upon completing the build, the lizard didn’t work! Our daughter definitely had a bout of frustrated tears, but the amazing thing is that she calmed herself down (with an encouraging reminder that engineers face problems then push through to solutions- builders must have resilience).

I wish I could report that the lizard gift was a smashing success, but when they were trying to fix the leg that wouldn’t move, my wonderful husband accidentally broke a part and now we need to ask for a replacement… The success was that our daughter didn’t despair at the accident but is eagerly awaiting the part, ready to continue tackling the project.

Perseverance and resilience has been a long awaited character trait for us, so maybe this is my best Christmas present as Mom.