Routine Is Important for Young Children

I'm sure most all of you have some sort of daily routine just as my husband and I do. Whether you have children or not most people have some sort of a routine. I know when my routine gets messed up for a few days it can throw my whole week off. Can you imagine if an adult can get so flustered from having a jolt in their routine what it must be like for kids when it happens?

Our routine is pretty simple really. It works well though and the kids know exactly what is going to happen when. Now I will say that I've never been strict on routine. We always had certain things we did at certain times, but I wasn't anal about it. Then my youngest started Kindergarten this year and that all changed. I had one kid in school last year and one in preschool and I had a hard time keeping up. So I knew that I was going to have a really hard time this year if I didn't get organized and set up a routine.

We have found that having a chore chart on the wall worked really well for us. We have these nice dry erase boards with all the kid's chores and or tasks for the day listed. The kids love the fact that they are able to walk over and put a checkmark by a task when they complete it. I think that along with knowing we were going to start giving an allowance helped us all adjust a little easier.

I'm sure as with most parents the hardest part was getting used to having homework nightly. My son has homework everyday except for on Fridays. The first week or so was rough. If you wait and let the kids do homework closer to bedtimes you are more apt to have a meltdown. At least that's how it tends to work in our home. However, when the kids get home from school the last thing they want to do is sit down and do homework. I've found that what works for us is to give them a snack/tv time for an hour or even playtime. After that hour we start homework. This way they've had a break and are a bit more ready to focus. Plus you are finished before dinner and it frees up the rest of your evening for family time.

We had to make a trip home to Indiana this last weekend and my kids missed two days of school. It threw our entire week off. Not only were the kids confused for the remainder of the week so was I! I was proud of myself for not forgetting to dress my daughter up for dress up day today though! Last year I was that bad mom and forgot. We did survive the week and are now ready to get back on schedule. How do you stay on schedule when you really can't?