“There is a peacefulness to toddlers and preschoolers when they stay home with one of their parents and their siblings (whenever possible) and follow a set pattern.” Sunday, March 21st
Before we enter Jonathan’s morning schedule this week, I want to address two areas over the next two days that come up when we introduce “Jonathan’s Journal”:
1. Maintaining that kind of schedule in our hurried world
2. Jonathan’s obedience and contentment
First of all, in answer to the first unspoken question, yes, we really did maintain that kind of schedule for our preschoolers. Some days were better than others: sometimes, as our older children got older, they had activities, etc., and it wasn’t as easy to maintain. One thing that I worked hard to do was keep our babies, toddlers, and preschoolers on roughly the same routine at least four weekdays a week. Obviously, if we had a field trip or all had appointments, etc., this wasn’t feasible.
When we had seven kids fifteen and under at home, I would schedule as many things in the afternoons as I could—and whoever wasn’t involved in that afternoon commitment stayed home and kept the schedule moving (i.e. the littles down for naps, independent work for the olders, etc.). That way, even if I was tied up, the toddlers and preschoolers were still on their regular routines. (On a completely separate note, we expected our preschoolers and toddlers to obey their older siblings—and the older siblings to not misuse their authority—more on that later!) When we only had young children, I stayed home “more often than not” (that theme keeps coming up in this blog!) in order to keep our littles on a good schedule.
We have become a “run around” society. I am not advocating that we try to live some artificial life and not live in the society we are in. But we do not have to accept societal norms that are counter-productive to living the life we want to live.
One of these norms that we chose not to adhere to is the idea of young moms toting toddlers and preschoolers all over the place all the time. It really isn’t necessary—and not the best thing for these little ones. With a little planning and forethought, we can stay home more and run less during the toddler/preschool days. (Obviously, I am not suggesting that you never have play dates, zoo trips, library days or Mom’s afternoons out—but that every day not be a day out when we have small children.)
There is a peacefulness to toddlers and preschoolers when they stay home with one of their parents and their siblings (whenever possible) and follow a set pattern. This takes me to the second question that is often asked following an introduction of “Jonathan’s Journal”: Did our preschoolers really behave in that way and were they really as content as Jonathan seemed? This question, we will answer tomorrow! SMILE….
