we have been lacking routines in our life to say the least, or perhaps, more honestly, developed routines that are not healthy for ourselves and household. having committed myself to schooling more in the waldorf manner, i'm taking this opportunity to visit our routines and start tweaking them.
two places i want to start are morning routines and bedtime routines. we have slipped into the habit/routine of watching too many dvd's. it has become custom to pop a dvd into the player as soon as jaden gets up, at her request. generally, i'm fumbling around on the computer, trying to catch up on emails and work a bit while they sleep which is just silly because they always wake w/in 20-30 minutes of me. so, one thing i've tried with success is popping a cd into the player instead and listening to some gentle waking music such as cat stevens. morning has broken is one of my favorites by him so i try to have that playing when they rise. i also am trying to get into the habit of leaving the computer off for that time and getting breakfast made pronto. instead of us scattering (kids usually eat breakfast while finishing up their movie and me at the computer), i'm working on us sitting at the kitchen table together. we've started saying a waldorf type blessing (jaden requested we start saying a blessing) that i've tweaked a bit:
earth who gave us all this food
sun who made it warm and good
mother earth and father sun
we thank you for the work you've done.
it works well for us. after that, i'm trying to get us into the habit of combing out hair, no easy task with all our long, wild, tangly hair (mine included). i try to braid all of it or put it into a ponytail but jaden is in a princess phase right now and won't let me braid the entire hair, just the sides and pull them back together.
once we get that routine established, i'll start getting our circle time established. more to come when that actually happens.
the other routine we just started tonight is getting them to bed by 8:30. this is no small feat. again, they are accustomed to watching a movie and falling asleep (usually) on our laps while doing so, around 930 or 10. so, i suggested to greg that we DON'T watch a movie every night (something i detest doing anyway but if i don't put one in, he goes upstairs and sits on his computer all night and leaves me to deal with the kids alone). i suggested that we establish a bedtime routine starting around 8pm by putting on their jammies (we don't bathe daily so i'd rather do baths during the day), having a snack at the table, brushing teeth and then sitting down to read a book. sage was not into it tonight and greg finally took him up to bed. jaden loves to be read to and fell asleep laying next to me while i read. so, the first night was fairly successful although my intent is that greg and i get alone time at night to either a). watch an adult movie (rated r movie) b). read c). talk d). work on a project (for me right now, it's working on sage's solstice gift). greg ended up falling asleep when he took sage up but i managed to get some work done on the solstice gifts.
holidays and weekends are generally killer on routines and starting one today seems a bit odd but we didn't go anywhere for thanksgiving, stayed at home and had the best one in our lives. greg cooked a lovely meal of pork roast with potatoes, carrots, bacon, scallions and bell peppers plus gravy, sauteed zucchini, fried apples and scalloped potatoes. i contributed homemade bread and homemade cranberry sauce (grind up a bag of cranberries with a whole orange, skin and all, add about 1 cup of honey and chill. yum!). plus, i made two butternut squash pies with freshly whipped cream.
tomorrow, we'll most likely all get up later than normal since greg's alarm won't be waking us at 5:00am. but, i'll attempt to get up and start breakfast so that it will be ready to eat when everyone gets up.
i'd love to hear everyone else's homeschooling morning and bedtime routines...are your weekends different than your weekdays? how do you handle the grey area of morning between you waking and the kids waking (if there is any)? i get great ideas from all my blogging friends. :) care to share your routines?
2 comments:
In the mornings, we usually wake up when we feel like it... generally between 6 and 8 (depending on how late Leif sleeps in). We all go down to the kitchen and Leif and Kaia play on the floor while I feed the cats and dog, and let the chickens out. Then I get breakfast ready and check my emails. After breakfast, I'll look over the things to do for the day while Kaia and Leif play more (she may color, work on a project, or just sit and play with Leif and his toys). Usually I'll put Leif down for a nap around 9:30 and then Kaia and I will start our schooling. We light a candle, and sometimes we will sing a song or say a blessing to start our school day. They we go over the day's schedule and she chooses what she would like to start on first. That's how it goes in the morning... Toby is often on his own. He gets up earlier than we do if it's a work day for him and will make himself breakfast. If it's a weekend, he usually sleeps in (Ohhhh, the luxury!)
At night, Leif usually goes to sleep by 7 and I will go up and nurse him to sleep. While I'm doing this Toby will have Kaia start her routine of changing into pajama, brushing teeth, and cleaning up. Then he will read a book to her. We try to get her in her room by 8 and she has an hour to read, knit, color, or do what she wants as long as she stays in bed and keeps it fairly quiet. Often, she will ask to turn the lights off before 9.
Then, Toby and I will have time to clean up, watch shows, knit, blog, what ever.... Toby stays up as late as he wants, but I'm usually called in to nurse Leif once if not 3 or 4 times before I get to bed at 10 or 11. (I'm trying to get Leif to eat more during the day so he's not so hungry at night)
We try to be flexible with all our routines so that we can do things in the am or pm as they come up, but I do like having my routine to count on.
One thing that I would like to add back in is tea in the morning and evening... it's such a nice comfort.
In the dark,cold season fire sets our routine. The fire must be fed at least once at night, and then again between 4 and 5 am. That's when CC and I get up. We usually have an hour or so to enjoy a cupa, catch up on the news, read, and plan the day. The kids are usually up by 6 or 6:30. Their breakfast follows soon after (usually pancakes we made in advance and froze.) By 7 CC is off to the races and the kids are doing their morning chores. 7:30 is reading time, thirty minutes, and then school starts. Our two are old enough that I can let them do their chores and independant reading while I do my chores.
Evening we have dinner together early (by 5:30), sometimes watch something, get the fire stoked and dampered down, and are mostly in bed by 8:30 or 9. Weekends are less structured for the kids, but about the same for me.
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