I have spent a few hours now reading different blogs about families daily/weekly routines or rhythms in the hope of gaining some insight and ideas for my own family.
My eldest daughter is very easily disrupted by chaos and thrives of a very structured environment and set routine - like, for example, in her nursery school. In nursery she is calm, she can concentrate for long periods, follows instructions, takes responsibilty - in things like tidying, she shares and plays nicely. At home, she is not at all calm, does not concentrate on anything, is destructive often, doesn't really play much, does not share and rarely follows instructions or takes responsibility - tidy/look after her belongings and others.
We don't have any kind of routine at home, i think this might contribute to her behaviour and so I am really looking to get one in place. We dont do the same thing even in morning routine, we dont eat at same times (or thereabouts) everyday, bedtime routine is non existent really, the only constant is they do get a story but that has been missed on occasions. I don't spend much time playing with them or spending real quality time and attention on them (something i am working on through a parenting programme 'incredible years')
All of the posts I have read say to start small and introduce one change at a time, this is where i come to a problem. I always try to change EVERYTHING at once..for example: i want to put in a bedtime routine, i want to have set meal times and cook proper nutritious meals and plan our meals instead of getting stuck at the last minute like i do now and then end up stressed, the children end up stressed as well, i want to have some sort of household routine with the cleaning and tidying, keep on top of paperwork, the budget...have a different activity to do/share with the girls each day, get out of the house for some time each day...the list could just go on.
I do not know which bit to start with...
I think I will do some more reading :S
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