I always try to find new ideas to teach my 7 years old son, things that place an important role in our daily basis, such as: time, quantities and discipline over emotions or seduction. I know that for many parents this may sound a little bit too much for a 7 years old, but I can see that my son already have a sense of these essential elements in his life, in fact, after these exercises he has reduced frustration and increase self motivation and confident.
He loves strawberries! so my exercise consist in: after lunch or dinner use the dessert as a reward. But first I make him feel special by saying; you are the only one who has dessert today, so of course no one will eat strawberries after lunch or dinner other than him, I should say, at list no at front of him. No only to make him feel like he is the big deal but also to avoid mislead. Let me explain! so you can see what I mean with that.
When dinner is over, I bring the full package of strawberries to the table, then we bring a clock and just one plate for him. Before we place a strawberry in his plate, we explain him the rules. We explain that he will start with one strawberry in his plate, we also told him that he can have all the strawberries in the package as long as he follow a couple of rules.
The plate must always have a list one strawberry, so they can keep coming. Every one minute, another strawberry will be in his plate. So we show him what a minutes means in a clock, showing the all cycle. We show him that the marker for second must complete all lap to be one minute. I know that (1 minute) for a 7 year old infant cloud be an eternity, but sometime motivation needs creativity.
We also explain that strawberries are "unlimited" for him as long he wait one minute to have another strawberry and keep the plate with a list one strawberry so they keep coming. If the plate is empty, the game is over, no more strawberries will come and everyone carry on with our own activities.
He fail the exercise twice with a little bit of frustration and confusion at the beginning, but no so much, especially the second time because he understood better the rules. The first time he ate the strawberry, the second time he took a bite and put it back on the plate, but the third time he got it right. Remember that he was the only one who has dessert right? leaving no room for questions about why me or mom got more than him? Anyway, as I told you; the third time he got it. Now he has access to unlimited strawberries :). It makes me even more exciting as a parent because in his early age, he has already experience some degree or basic understanding of how important is: time, quantities, and discipline in his life. Interesting enough, these are things that many of us as adult underestimate, that is why many times things don't work the way that we want.
It is very important to motivate them with great care and make them feel like they are specials. As my father told me once; give them affection and they will always come back to you with respect and admiration. I was lucky enough to have a father telling me every day before school; (Son remember you are special, you are smart, you are not average and you will never be. You are here to do great things and bring happiness to others. You don't see it now but time would bring you wisdom).
My father did not have much in this material world, in fact, we always struggle economically, however, I like to believe that he is the special one in the family, who has a deeply understanding of life and great wisdom.
I hope my experience contribute and inspire other parents.
Best