If there is a purpose

I am amazed at how long Ben sat at his yard sale table Saturday! Patience usually isn't his strong point, unless HE assesses an activity to be important enough.  After Matt and I helped him take his toys and books outside and set up a table, plywood on saw-horses, he sat in his chair(the one that's not worn and fuzzy against his neck) and waited for three hours while cars drove past him down the road to the neighbor's yard sale and then back up past him without stopping. 

Money is a definite motivator for Ben, mostly because he wants to buy Legos. There are sets that he has started that must be completed! But still I expected him to come in for a break at the half hour mark...hour...two hour. But no. I brought him a Nutty Buddy cone at eleven and told him that most yard salers stop coming at noon. After he ate his treat, he decided it was time.  We put books in a box to take to Wonder Book and Video, and toys in two different bags; trash and Goodwill. He never complained, not even when he gave back the fives and ones we had given him for change at the beginning.

At Derby Day on July fourth, Ben agreed to keep score of each race. With his notepad in his lap, positioned closer to the bottom than the top of the section of Main Street cordoned for the race, he wrote down the winner of each race...for four hours! He did have his chair...could that be a factor? It does sort of cradle him like a hammock, which has always helped him be calm. He ate his pizza, delivered to the chair, but never missed the results of a race. Three quarters of the way throught the event, when Thomas asked for his opinion of who would win, he said, "How should I know!". He wasn't being smart alec; he was confused as to how he was expected to know what was going to happen. He could tell exactly what HAD happened. That was fact. Ben didn't really like estimating in math class either. 

Ben knew we were probably going to stay for the whole race, since Matt and I were there to give out free water from the church. Maybe he figured he might as well do something to pass the time. But we have gone to the race most years,  and he normally didn't enjoy it enough to stay till the end.  He resisted making any social connections, even though in the past couple years there were drivers who were his age. But having a reason to watch each race he was content to sit there for four hours.

 Can I learn something about how to extend the amount of time he will be patient in a situation that doesn't have an obvious purpose for him or isn't entertaining to him?  It's hit or miss though, since I have to sell the idea as his own....