At this time of the year, after a holiday season break it is finally time to look ahead at the new year before us. In the holidays, we all enjoy relaxing and plenty of our good habits fall away. Slowly the floor becomes covered with a wardrobe full of clothes (and not just the kids! Eek!). As I move around the house, I trip over the various games of LEGO, puzzles and dolls scattered around the house (before packing the previous 5 games away!). Can anyone relate?
It can be overwhelming to know where to even START when planning for our family learning. It’s easy to get bogged down in the state of the house around us, let alone the details about the ‘schooling’…..such as: what math program should I follow? Or what sport will my child play this year? Or what books should we read?
I find that after the Christmas break, my head is spinning with so many thoughts about the year ahead.
So, let’s take a deep breath and step back for a moment to consider a few things before we launch into any details of the year ahead. After all, your home environment and atmosphere is very much connected to our own state of mind (and sanity!).
At the start of the year is a good time to reset the family and establish good habits.
What are some things in your day that you want to establish as foundations? What things do you want to see become daily habits as part of your everyday routines? It may be daily reading over breakfast, having children tidy up before moving onto the next thing, or making the bed, or sharing the highs and lows about the day over the evening meal.
It can be helpful to start with yourself and identify your own habits that you would like to establish. What do you want to set in as daily goals for the day? Do you have a time you’d like to wake up each day? A morning routine that you’d like to establish before you get into the kitchen to start breakfast? This might include: stretching, exercise, reading, prayer or goal setting for the day, getting dressed or other morning rituals that are important to help you prepare for the day ahead. Identify and give yourself time to put these habits into action until you are comfortable and are feeling in the groove of it.
Once you’ve established yourself and your own goals, then you can think about family habits. This could be encouraging the children to set some goals (if they are older) or helping them to establish daily habits. In our home, I like my children to make their bed and clear their bedroom floor in the morning, get dressed and fill up their water bottle ready to start the day. For me, these things help us all feel prepared and ready to enjoy the day together.
Despite the many years of doing these daily tasks, I find that after a good break, my children need some extra help and training to get back into these routines. For the first week, each day I help my children to remember these morning habits and walk them through it. We have also used a job chart that can help prompt them to what they need to do. Some days they do these without reminders and other days I really need to walk them through each step.
Give yourself and your children grace as you establish good habits in your home because after all, we are key to creating the environment around us. Taking time to establish good habits really helps to shift back into ‘school’ mode and can make your home a more peasant and peaceful environment to live in and a joyful place to learn.
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