Teaching Your Child Self-Discipline

My friend and I have already discussed the two books mentioned in this article as we actively work with our toddlers to learn patience. We both want our son and daughter to learn to wait for dinner, or to sit at the table and wait for us all to finish. But I love what this author says about truly teaching self-discipline, "Effective approaches for building self-control combine fun with progressively increasing challenges. Rather than force activities onto an unwilling child, take advantage of his or her individual tendencies." Very Vygotsky. This is using a child's strengths rather than his weaknesses. They also suggest other ways to learn self-discipline, self-control and patience by learning another language, exercise like yoga and meditation, and helping children recognize their emotions when they are upset. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/opinion/sunday/building-self-control-the-american-way.html