Bushwalk resilience

During his big sister's harp lesson today, Bright Eyes and I went on a short bush walk. I enjoyed it. He didn't!

"Can we go back to the car now? We have to go home now. It's finished. I'm not going on a walk. It's not walk time. etc" He frequently tried to stop, turn around and run away.

I kept my mouth shut and stood close to him, offering my hand. At one stage I squatted next to him, held him close and just pointed in the direction we were intending to go.

He fought verbally, but didn't resist too much physically, so we did make it down the track a little ways and then back.

Half way down I stopped and said, "Hey, if we close our eyes we can listen to all sorts of sounds." He stopped for a bit, listened and said, "I can hear an eagle."

It was a good exercise in resilience for me (making it happen with guidance rather than force or entertainment) and competence for him (doing something he didn't feel confident about and succeeding.)