I firmly believe that children need routine and structure in order to thrive.
It is that belief that helped tremendously in the classroom when I taught special education.
But now that I am a mom, it can be so easy to falling into a trap of not structuring our day. Of not thinking of this as the most important job I could ever have. Of just letting the kids “free play” the entire day long while I work on housework and read blogs.
Sometimes I need good reminders of how much they and I need structure and routine in our day.
For the last few weeks, life has just kind of passed us by. Our outside activity schedule has been pretty busy and on the days we’re home, I’ve been trying to play catch up…to no avail.
I haven’t caught up.
I’ve been quite stressed and ovewhelmed.
And things kind of came to a head this weekend as our time changed and we’ve all been sick with yet another cold.
I slept in on Sunday, Monday and today because of the illness and adjusting to the time change.
In fact, I didn’t want to do anything more than lay around and be miserable today.
After breakfast this morning, I looked around me…
the dishes were piled up…
laundry was piled up….
and the kids were starting to get wild already.
I made a quick decision that things needed to change.
As EA, MC, and Will finished up their breakfast, I wached up the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and started laundry.
After breakfast I gave them all a much needed bath and dressed them for the day so that we could start “school”.
And that’s what we did….
for the rest of the morning, I focused on my most important job, taking care of and teaching my children.
We read books, we sang songs, we laughed and played.
We even fingerpainted.
After lunch and quiet time, I gave the girls coloring pages to work on while I started dinner. We also did some more reading and a math activity in the afternoon. All the while, I was giving my children the focused attention they crave and need as I bulilt structure into our day.
While I finished dinner preparations EA, MC, and Will were able to have free play time. But because I spent so much time with them earlier in the day, they weren’t fighting and bickering the whole time. They enjoyed playing together.
And because so much of our day was structured and we did activities together, there was much less mess to clean up before bed.
As I put aside my own selfish desire to laxidasically let the day pass us by, I could feel the stress level around here greatly decrease. My own and that of the kids.
I have goals of adding more structure into our days. I am making plans to come up with a written plan for our daily routine. This routine will include times for school, arts and crafts, quiet time, outside play (on nice Baumholder days), chores, and free play.
What about you? Do you rely on structure and routine in your home? Or are you able to just roll with the punches as they come?
If you do have a set routine that you use in your home, I would love to hear about it as I am planning mine.
Tanya says
What an encouraging posts! I struggle with routine. Actually, I literally fight against it. 🙂 But I know it’s important and try to work it into our lives.
When I had just one child, our days were very structured. I kept spreadsheets of our activities, nutrition, sleep … everything! Then God surprised us with #2 and I was so overwhelmed, our daily routine completely disappeared in favor of survival. Balancing food allergies, temperament issues, sleep problems with everything else that naturally comes with having two under the age of two — it was all too much for me. I’m still trying to recover from our two years without routine.
So, thanks for the encouragement! 🙂
Tanya’s last blog post..Mama Loves: Blatant honesty
Happy Mama says
lol…our kids HATE finger paint!
Happy Mama’s last blog post..Let The Part y Begin! UBP 2009!!!
homegrownstrawberries says
I am at that place too just recovering for a cold my kitchen full of dishes my living room full of blocks… I just got all the laundry done and boy was there a lot of it!
homegrownstrawberries’s last blog post..My Geek Family
Jennifer Scruggs says
OUCH. Can you say, CONVICTION??? 🙂 I need to be more purposeful in our routine. Since we live with Jerry’s grandmother, I am ashamed to admitt that many of my choices for activities are based on how fast I can GET OUT OF THE HOUSE and have some space to breath. Praise God warm weather is coming– because we LIVE outside in the spring and summer. I need to plan at least ONE purposeful activity with the kids each day. Will you hold me accountable to that? Message me on facebook in a week or two and ask if I’ve been doing that?? It’s not that I just leave the kids to their own divices all day everyday, but I do let circumstances too frequently dictate whether I spontaniously do a directed activity with them. I think I will plan one type of activity to focus on each day– One day a craft, one day storytime, one day a cooking activity, etc. I need to think about what will fit best on each day– I have certain chores I do on certain days for me– Monday, Laundry, Tues MOPS (church, not chores) Wed, Bathroom, Thurs, kids room, Friday- floors. Ok, I’m rambling, but—- anyway, you have challenged me. THANKS.