The Importance of Rhythm & Routine

Whether you welcome routine, or resist it, we're here to tell you why you should embrace it.

At Daily Wonder we talk a lot about rhythm and routine.  That’s because we know that young children feel a sense of good health when they are held by boundaries, including the lay-out of the day, week, month…. Children are meant to learn through play and doing until they reach high school.  This means we need to provide them with lots of activities that spark their creativity and provide space for wonder.  When they know what is expected of them children are freed up to be in the moment.  It is up to the adults to create the boundaries to free the children.
 
A friend recently told us that she was not expecting the freedom that came with building a fence around her property.  It sounds kind of backwards, that a fence creates freedom, but think about it…she has a dog that had to be tied up or managed all the time.  Once the fence went up, the dog knew how far it could go and the people trusted that the dog would just do dog things. We aren’t comparing children and dogs, but we are comparing the freedom fence to boundaries.
 
Rhythm – this is your wide level organization such as your year, when you start school, what holidays or celebrations you participate in, what time you get up each day, what time you start and end your morning lesson…
 
Routine – these are the details within your rhythm such as singing a song to begin the morning lesson, lighting a candle before story, and how you end the day.  Routines are kind of like the rules for ‘how we do things’. 

Any solid new rhythm and routine will take about six weeks to take hold. This means that once you've decided on the appropriate, realistic routine for your family, you need to harness all your forces to hold your new routine in place while you're settling in.

The temptation will be to let it go and give in because it's exhausting and feels like it's not working. But, what's actually happening during this time, is that you are genuinely exhausted because you are using your energy and life forces to hold a routine for your family. The good news is that around the 6-week mark, the routine will hold the family, and you can take a step back.

You will notice that our daily lesson plans have repeating daily steps. This is to support you in holding that routine for your family. We can't stress enough how important it is to open and close your homeschool day at the same time and in the same way.

Also, because you will feel exhausted during this return to routine, make sure to schedule your self-care into this routine. This might look like making yourself a cup of tea at 11:30 every morning and zenning out on the couch while your child plays lego on the floor. Your body will welcome this set time to relax each day within this structured routine.

Remember to hold an abundance of love and compassion for yourself while on this rewarding journey. 

Do you have a routine that works well for you and your family?  We'd love to hear about it in the comments below.