The past couple of weeks we've really let the household routine slide and my kids are starting to get massively crabby because of it (How could I forget Habit #1?). What can I say, it's the end of the school year, we all have Spring Fever, and the adoption home study has kept us hopping.
My middle son is especially sensitive to having a lack of structure to his day and after a particularly nasty explosion today, I vented to hubby, "What is wrong with him?" (I knew the answer, but had to hear someone else say it.) "He needs structure, Kerry."
Yup, we all do.
Some of us enjoy non-structure to a degree and can get along fine without it for a time, but then it wears on us. I'm that way. That middle boy tends to be our household barometer - if he's feeling out of sorts; our home is out of sorts. His outburst today tells me it is way past time to get us back into a routine.
A while ago (like months) I posted about Rhythm, Reverence and Time. These are concepts around which I really want to shape my children's (and my) days. (Unfortunately, I've been slacking severly in all three of these areas. ) I'm going to start with focusing on Rhythm - particularly the rhythm of everyday life in our home.
The first thing I need to do is determine a reasonable daily routine. Then I will look at ways to set moods for certain activities and times of day. And finally I'll examine different ways to ease transitions during our day. I'll share my thoughts and plans, but I would also really appreciate your feedback on all of this - so please share you ideas, questions, resources, etc!
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We have used MOTH some. It helped us to set some anchors in our day. It made me kinda crazy trying to do it too rigidly.
I'm curious about how other moms handle their husbands working rotating shifts. The kids just don't do well with the usual routine when dad's schedule is different.
One idea that has been working nicely for us is listening to a book on tape during lunch. After lunch I can clean up while listening. We're listening to unabridged Heidi right now.
Tracey
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