Bye chaos, hello day structure

Parenthood is a lifelong learning process (lifelong education). As different as the challenges are, so are the solutions. Every family ticks differently. Often several people with different daily rhythms come together in a family. "Larks" are early risers and get tired early in the evening, while "owls" like to sleep longer in the morning and go to bed late in the evening. Bringing together the different needs in a family without creating pure chaos is a daily effort.

Getting around and anchoring in the day

The daily, communal lunch or the good-night kiss: recurring activities provide children with a safe framework for discovering the world (safe framework to discover the world). What habits strengthen your domestic peace? We have summarized our favorite rituals - for children from 4 to 10 years - here.

1. Rituals for the morning

After getting up, the children scurry wildly around the apartment?

• Gathering together and setting a starting point together brings peace and quiet into the day
• With smaller children you can sing a song or welcome the day with a joint pillow fight
• Having breakfast together creates a sense of togetherness and provides security, and the children can take on fixed tasks such as setting the table

2. "Clamp the tag"

Everybody's talking crazy about what they're gonna do today?

• Paint a poster together with the morning, noon and evening areas. Use clothes pegs to clip on symbol cards to show what is on the agenda for the day
• If there are several children, each child can get its own poster or you can use clothes pegs in a different colour for each child

3. Creating order with "solid" cleaning up music

After tinkering or stacking building blocks, is a chaos left on the living room table?

• Sets a specific music to be played for cleaning up
• Music without lyrics or singing is best suited. This way, children associate the request to clean up with a certain music and in the best case start to clean up on their own after a while when they hear the music

4. Reconciling

The children were arguing or you were annoyed with the children?

• A common tea, which is drunk together as a "reconciliation", symbolizes for the children that everything is okay again
• An alternative is to "flush" the previous argument with your child down the toilet. Children understand that conflicts are allowed, but can better let go of them

5. In the bathroom

The children do not want to be washed or brush their teeth?

• Tell your children what you are doing right now instead of suddenly surprising them with a cold washcloth
• For small children, the care in the bathroom can also be accompanied by beautiful stories of "Frau Cremedose" and "Herr Waschlappen
• Take a playful approach to the children's daily personal hygiene, for example by going on a "bacteria hunt" with a toothbrush

6. Goodnight rituals

The kids don't want to go to bed and run around?

• Consciously change the transition from the more active to the quiet part of the day so that the children are not too excited
• After dinner there is time for quiet games: Puzzle, paint a picture, listen to a radio play
• Once in bed, many children like it when you read to them or when they read to themselves
• At the edge of the bed is also a good moment to ask yourself how your child's day was
• It's cuddle time, many children enjoy closeness and undivided attention in the evening

If you need even more support, please contact us at fraguns@elternhotline.de !

If you are still looking for inspiring summer holiday activities or would like to know more about how children learn well, you will find a few suggestions in the magazine (Summer Holidays).

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Published on 23.07.2020