Last week my sister was asking how much time do we all take to get up in the morning, one or two people posted back 30 minutes or so, I posted back an hour and a half. There are many friends out there who are aware of my lacking in humour first thing in the morning. James and Maggie seem to wake up full of sunshine, while Emma and I find ourselves having to dig it out from beneath stormy skies... but I do have to admit that after a cup of tea I am fully ready to face the day... so why so long? well, because, I refuse to rush around like a headless chicken and in order to maintain a peaceful morning. I feel that in order to teach Independence you have to give everyone plenty of time to tie up shoes laces themselves and to find library books by themselves and to finish spelling homework by themselves and to... you get the idea...
When I am rushed I end up tying the shoes, I run around digging sneakers out from under the sofa and inevitably driving home after dropping the kids off feeling bad about lecturing them on trying to remember the math book that is still sitting on the coffee table.
But there is also one more step to Independence that requires time and a little patience, and so far is progressing well... breakfast... yes we could through a pop tart in the toaster - but we don't. Learning to make healthy choices and having the time to do so is, I feel, the most important lesson of the morning.
and if they want to cook eggs for breakfast at 6:45 in the morning... then we have the time to do so...
I hear so many people trying to keep children out of the kitchen, about how much mess they are left to clean up once a cake has been popped in the oven. Children need to be let INTO the kitchen and taught how to clean up after themselves right from the getgo... after the girls had finished cooking and eating I looked around and found every thing had been cleaned up, counters wiped down, plates in the dishwasher and were off searching for a library book. There is no way we could have done this if we had to be up and out in 30 minutes, and no way they could ever learn how to live independantley once they leave my nest if we did not have time in the morning.
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