As soon as I read this week’s WordPress photo challenge theme, I knew what my picture would be. “Ready” is a challenge I face at our house every school day. Managing to get my kindergartener on time at school every morning is a feat requiring to move mountains. Well, maybe not, but I feel exhausted after I drop him off. He doesn’t start school until 8:15am (his little brother starts preschool 30 minutes later) so you’d think we have plenty of time to get ready by waking up at 6:45am. But that would mean forgetting his son is a master procrastinator with no sense of urgency.
We keep getting nasty letters from the school, listing the days he’s been tardy. And by “tardy”, they mean the days I get him in the line in the courtyard barely one minute after the bell rings. Give me a break! Well, apparently they don’t want to give me one. All he may miss is the beginning of the pledge of allegiance one or two days a week. Boo-hoo.
So every morning we follow the same routine, which the kids always seem to forget from one day to the next:
– Wake up at 6:45am
– Get out of bed / get pulled out of bed
– Pee
– Get dressed / have Mama dress you
– Go downstairs
– Sit down at the dining table
– Stay seated long enough to eat breakfast
– Only play with toys if there’s extra time (I said, only it’s there’s time!)
– Brush teeth
– Put shoes on
– Put suncreen on
– Put jackets on
– Go in the car and get strapped in
Of course this is only their part, not everything I have to do on my end to make it all happen. If you’re a parent, you know exactly what I go through in the morning. How did we do today? The boys were in the car at 8am sharp and we had plenty of time to make it to school. Ta-da!
Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Ready
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Perfecting Motherhood 
Impressive! And well told . . . I said, only if there’s time! ;)
A friend of mine commented on my Facebook link to this post that kids simply don’t have any notion of time. It’s very true because even on the days we plan to go somewhere fun for the kids, they still can’t get ready! They really think the day is expandable to meet their own schedule. I believe that’s where the one more story, one more kiss, one more hug comes from.
Been there…done that. :)
Milka, I know it is so difficult to get everything done and get the kids where they need to be on time! What do you think would help to get everybody out on time? If you come up with a plan…maybe you could chart it and have your kindergartener be in charge of checking off each item as it was done…teeth brushed, dressed, breakfast, etc. Maybe making him “responsible” for that would help him be more aware of the passage of time and the importance of getting to school on time. Just a thought.:)
By the way, I gave you the Liebster Blog Award: http://viviankirkfield.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/academy-award-of-the-blogosphere-the-liebster-award/
I really enjoy reading your posts. :) And I will try to mail out the picture book to you tomorrow. :)
Thank you for the award, I’ll have to hop over and check it out.
As for our mornings, we do have a specific routine we follow, and even a board we can refer to showing what comes next. Kids have a hard time getting ready for bed every night too, and we still have our routine down. And they can’t seem to get ready on the weekend either, even when it involves doing something fun for them. I think they just need time to grow into the notion of time and until then, I’ll just have to drag them along!
I think you’re are exactly right. Children have no concept of time at this age.
One of the things I did to help my children learn about time was to do specific tasks with them with a timer to help them ‘feel’ what a second is, what a minute is, what an hour is. (Like lie down, jump up and down, colour in)
Then as they start to be able to read numbers I used a timer to help them do a task. We also use calenders and week boards to help with the concept.
But it is really a really difficult concept for them to grasp. Dare I say it, it takes time!!
My mornings go on and on. My son has to leave the house at 6.50 and my elder daughters at 7.30 and my youngest starts between 8 and 9.30. It gives me one on one time with the younger ones but I often feel like the morning drags on!!
As you know, my son has ADHD. One of the problems with ADHD is time management. He tends to have the same approach to time as a 4 or 5 year old. I’ve tried various different approaches (the one that worked well for my daughters was, for example, to write an exact schedule for them to the minute, they’d keep an eye on the time and the schedule and I didn’t need to harass them any more as their schedule did it for me). My son is different though. He can read the time but wanders off the schedule. The only thing I’ve found to date that works is less is more. I only allow enough time for him to do exactly what is required of him. Ie No playing/books/TV/radio.
I also use this approach with my 5yo when I have an appointment (and it works), but generally I like the time we have alone together in the mornings, so we eat a leisurely breakfast, read together, chat, even go and feed the ducks ;-).
It will get better. Once they can tell the time and start to get the concept things will change.
But honestly, what’s your kids school all about?
My five year old can tell time and knows exactly what he’s supposed to do at what time every day. And yet he strays… The thing is, I read this book on personalities and while his brother is supposed to be respectful of rules and order, for him everything is “flexible” in his mind and it will take a lot of work to “train” him. I’ll just have to make sure he chooses a job that involves no sense of urgency!
It might change as he gets older. Brilliant he can tell the time already!! A lot of children find that tough!!
We have this learning time clock at our house and it’s helped him figure out how to tell time on both types of clocks. Not bad for a five-year old. Now I just have to work on his brother.