A timely reminder

"Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed." – Maria Montessori. 

This an area where I constantly have to remind myself to let them do it:- I must let them get their own shoes on (even when I'm running late).This is sometimes easier said than done but then there are days like yesterday which remind me all over again of the importance of 'I must let them'.
I was sawing a cherry log to make some tree sections for our botany shelf when Sunflower decided she wanted one - it had taken me nearly 20 mins to cut my section with a hand saw and if I'm truthful, the only reason I said she would have to do it if she wanted one was because I was too tired to cut another : )

Well it worked - she persisted and persisted and persisted and a while later had her own tree section that she had proudly cut (it took over half an hour but even when she wanted to 'rest her arm' she wouldn't let anyone else do any for her)
What would have happened if I had done this for her instead of letting her do it for herself? 

She wouldn't have had the experience of hard work yielding a good result, she wouldn't of had an object lesson on the importance of persistence and she wouldn't have experienced the pride of a task achieved.

The other great benefit for me is when she now faces a hard task, we have a great object lesson to fall back on that highlights her ability to persist, achieve the seemingly impossible and shows her the benefits of independence.

Linking up at Montessori Monday