encouraging independence

First day back at school today... and I was nervous. School holidays are brilliant, for some reason my children have taught themselves to sleep in. Late. Im talking 9am wake up for a two yr old, 8.30am for the 4 yr old and sometime around 8am for the 6 yr old. Its unheard of, I know. And so, when the holidays come to an end and I know I have to have all three kids in the car at 8.30am ( clothes are optional for two of them) I am filled with dread at having to get back into the routine that is SCHOOL. Im not a fan, can you tell???

So this morning, I was determined to be not only organised, but calm and flowy so that the school term can start happily and without my voice ringing in her ears to get ready/brush your teeth/ get your socks on...

Last night, I made the lunches. I hate doing it at 11pm at night but really, it does work to have it done. I set out her clothes ready to go, right in front of the tv so it would automatically happen. It did.

And to help with the breakfast routine I decided to try something different. My kids are shockers at breakfast, take ages to sit up to have it, then demand I do it right then and there, then promptly leave if Im doing something. We then have tears in car cos its been forgotten.

I want them to be more independent, but I get that 2ltr milk is heavy and scary to pour, and that a WHOLE box of rice bubbles will almost definitely end up on the floor if not assisted.

So, when I got up to go out to take some photos this morning of the sunrise ( YES! finally I got up early too) I set this up for her.

Its simple, and makes her life easy too. And it gives her just enough help to not need me right there hovering. She loved it, I loved it :)

So she was dressed, and breakfasted, all in 25 minutes, give her enough time to chill and watch tv and begin her day calmly. I had barely had to remind her to anything.

How long it will last I dont know. But with a morning that works, Im keen to keep it going :)

Not only that, Im going to start letting all three do their own breakfast this way. Its a great step to doing things for themselves and gives them a great sense of accomplishment.

Having a great start to the day meant the whole day just flowed. I set up some simple outdoor areas for the other two, the dolls house and little people, which I had hidden away for some time. I love doing things like this... hiding toys away for a few months and then pulling it out for them to play with. Its like they have new toys!

The other cool area I set up today was a really easy fishing activity that I collected things from Big W. Two packets of plastic fish, two fish nets, one tub and some food colouring and I had a really cool fishing game that Jared just loved.

Simple things make life easy, fun and breathable.

Do you guys have any tricks for simplifying life??

Its the simple things...

Got sidetracked editing photos last night.. its seems to be taking me over! Then the camera deleted all the photos Id taken.. I tell you I just about threw it at a wall. but knowing that would really only hurt me, I let it be.

That added to the fact that Im a little lacking in cool ideas at the moment, both kids have been tired, and all of us are still battling a cold thing no one has been keen to do anything much.

Today though, I was feeling that uncontrollable urge to reorganise and clean... you know the one...where no child can get in the way, you are on a mission, to clean, to conquer. Its rare for me thankfully, but today I was unsettled and it was clear I needed to sort something out and make at least part of the house more presentable than in its current 'hit by a tornado' look. I also felt that my two littles were following me around a bit much lately, not able to find something to DO but not really wanting to do anything to craftalicious. Its a fine line really, to find balance. So my plan was to create for them a space to just play, something simple that involved a few different activities for them to do.

Today, it was the outdoor area. I knew that the munchkins really didnt want a bar of me today but I wanted to fix their play area so they could enjoy the sunshine and fresh air and without me dominating play (Im often outcast by these two. Im ok with it mostly, as long as they let me play sometimes).

Firstly, together we picked up all the broken toys and bits and pieces and chucked them out. Both of them wanted a cubby, so I set up the beach tent for them to play in.





Whilst they were happily playing, I sorted out a Zen pit for Amahli. I called it this because its filled with pebbles and some large rocks and its totally relaxing and calming to play in it :) She loves this kind of play and played in it for ages this morning.

Jumeirah wanted to add boats to the Zen pond so I let her.. they swirled around for quite awhile, happy to be floating under her gentle control.

We turned the beach tent into a hospital where many teddies came to be seen by Dr Richard ( Jared told me today that his name is Richard. Dont ask, I dont know)


I also fixed up the outdoor table ( to be used in craft tomorrow) so we could sit hopefully on the weekend as a family.

A small table was the last edition to the play space with a small bucket of constructive pieces and its completed.





Too often lately I feel a bit lacking in the things I do with them, I feel like I run play too much instead of letting them just play. This kind of area gives me purpose and satisfaction, I feel like they are learning through simple set ups, and they love it.

And I got to sit, absorb some much needed whatever it is I get from the sun ( Melatonin? Seratonin?? its one of them) and watch my happy pair, and then trio, JUST ENJOY.