I can’t
quite believe the mid-term is over already. Granted the primary and montessori schoolers
only had two days off but the teenagers had the full week, and even that seems
to have gone by in the blink of an eye. And after a lovely, albeit rainy, afternoon
spent at the beach, I’m finding, as Sunday night comes around again that I’m
taking the ostrich approach to the uniform situation – well for an hour anyway –
as I remain in denial about the task in hand. There’s a certain dread fills me
going into the week ahead, and I swear I feel it more than the kids.
It’s not
that everything was perfect last week. In fact in spite of having three
teenagers in the house (my daughter’s pal stayed over) a phone call to a radio
station nearly went horribly wrong. As I went on air to discuss a suitable
tax-funded childcare solution, the two and four year olds antennae went up –
mum was missing and needed to be tracked down immediately. And track me down
they did to the youngest’s bedroom, which incidentally is there purely for decoration
as his favourite place to sleep is firmly beside me – and not as much as a centimetre
apart. However in spite of his lack of familiarity with his supposed designated
sleeping area, he and his big brother found me and proceeded to pound on the
door.
“Mum we
need to see you. Mum were are you, I did a poo!” came the indignant call from
little voices as I kept my foot pressed firmly against the door. As I answered the radio host’s questions and
tried to keep my focus, I felt sure one of the teenagers would come to my
rescue – they knew what I was doing after all. But no, t’was not to be and the
attempts to break into me continued.
When the
call came to an end I went to investigate what possible terrible fate had
befallen the teenagers in my house to have allowed such a thing to happen. It
turns out “Back to the future” and the online pursuit of Longitude tickets had
caused them to lose all awareness of their surroundings and had resulted in a temporary
loss of their hearing.
On the plus
side however, there was no homework.
But we’re
back to normality tomorrow and so without any more ado or further digression, here’s
my top tips to making the school week more harmonious and altogether lovely!
1. Leave out everything the night
before – every. single. thing. Shoes, jocks, socks, change needed for the next
day, spare football boots, drama folders etc . Don’t believe any child that
tells you something in this category is in a particular place without seeing
proof! Failure to do this will inevitably result in the discovery that a shoe
or something equally important has disappeared from the face of the earth just
as you’re about to leave the house. Such a discovery is likely to send you into
fishwife mode – which is neither a harmonious or lovely start to the day for
anyone, especially you.
2. Make the lunches the night before –
I know they taste nicer if they’re made that morning, but the time saved is
invaluable when you’re already under pressure.
3. When it comes to homework, choose
your children’s seating arrangements wisely. Know which pairings work best and
don’t be tempted to veer from them - and
get all bathroom stops, snack requests and general avoidance tactics out of the
way beforehand to give the children as straight a run as possible at the task
in hand.
4. Set an age appropriate amount of
time for your children to complete their homework within, and stop them when
that time is up! It’s hard to know sometimes whether daydreaming or quantity is the cause of some children spending so long doing their homework. Consistency
with a set time approach should make it obvious pretty quickly. If you feel quantity
is the problem then consider prioritising your child’s homework for them. If for
example they have 10 questions to complete in one subject, getting them to do
questions 2,4,6,8 and 10 should offer a good balance in terms of scope and progressive
difficulty, rather than 1,2,3,4 and 5.
5. Don’t overcommit to afterschool
activities. Give yourself and the rest of the family some downtime. It’s lovely
to be able to offer our children the chance to try different activities but be
careful that it doesn’t come at the cost of putting you and the rest of the
family under unreasonable time pressures and constraints
6. Get a wall planner/ calendar for
your fridge and keep it up to date so that you and the older members of the
family can see at a glance what commitments you have for the week
7. Remember that the evenings are yours
to enjoy as well – not just the weekends. There may be lots to do, but make taking
the time to chill a priority also. Sometimes
it’s just necessary to park the non- essentials. We’re all living in a time-poor society but all work and no play not only makes Jack a dull boy but also
leaves Jacqueline feeling frustrated and overwhelmed.
8. Leave your own clothes out the night
before too – it’s a surprising timesaver. And get up, get dressed and have
breakfast before the kids too. It’s so much more relaxed than the alternative
of being called to mop up juice while you’ve just one leg in your trousers.
