It can be difficult to avoid household chaos with the busy and varying schedules of the average family. It certainly doesn't work well to hover, scold and constantly admonish children with "pick that up", "put that away", "flush the toilet", "make your bed" ... blah, blah, blah. In most households it's not necessary to have that kind of constant scrutiny. Once the expectations are established for where the jackets go, where the wet towels go, where the dirty clothes go and children know that the beds must be made, breakfast cleaned up and they've gone through a "door check" as in "Are we all ready?", you've accomplished check point one for the day. The next check point is usually at lunch time when toys can be picked up and put away, hands washed and children included in lunch preparation to the level of their capability. Checkpoint three is usually related to quiet time or nap time when, once again, toys can be put away, stories told, songs sung and children allowed to choose a quiet, independent activity for themselves and expected to honor this time with the promise of a greatly anticipated late afternoon activity, reward or treat. The final checkpoint happens before bath and bed. Children come to understand this routine and that life flows rather smoothly and with a great deal of flexibility under these circumstances. Of course, not every day adapts itself easily to this type of routine but children understand there are special circumstances and can easily return to the comfortable routine of life at home. These are also quite transportable check points and can serve a family well when traveling and visiting in the homes of friends and family. Children feel confident when they know what's expected of it and feel competent as part of the family unit. [Here you see a photo of our grand daughter, Clara, helping her Poppi make a butterfly net as her after-nap project.]
