Morning and bedtime routines with reminder charts are working! I call them Gifts of Time because I feel that we are using our time so much more effectively and I can get more done with them, and be more relaxed during the potentially "witching hour."Instead of me yelling "let's GO!" "hurry up" "do this, do that...", I started pointing to the sign and saying things like, "It's 7:30, you should be here." It is VERY hard to resist the urge to just tell them what to do, but WOW is it better when they can think and be responsible for themselves, rather than wait for me to nag them to do the next thing all the time. They aren't as fast as I wish, but they are proud and getting better at it. Now that we know how much time it takes to get things done, we can start at an appropriate time and finish at an appropriate time, which means we actually have MORE TIME for bedtime reading too.
Each to-do item has words and pictures to remind them. We taped a copy of each to their bedroom mirror, an extra bedtime on in their bathroom, and an extra morning one in the kitchen. We follow them nearly every day and after a couple months they could remember most of it without even looking at it. Bedtimes and mornings are still stressful sometimes, but much more sane now. I can even get some house chores done while they take care of themselves, meaning MORE TIME for me too!
It's GO TIME! Did you earn a star ticket?
1 comment:
I like the charts. It really helped when I was doing the night duty a couple of times. You are such a smart Mom for coming up with the idea and creative use of words and pictures for them to understand.
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