It was our first week back on concentrating our on morning routine in preparation for my son going to PREP next year and can I say WOW! So my kids already knew a lot of the routine and last week I blogged about just adding one more magnet to the sequence but I never thought it would go so well!A bit of a change of plan from the outline of last week, but this week I introduced two magnets into the kids morning routines. 'Sunscreen' and 'Pack Lunch'.
The 'sunscreen' magnet was embraced quite easily and the kids are happy enough to do the one squirt from the pump sunscreen that I bought, they apply it to their own faces and then the left over sunscreen gets wiped down their arms. They are both doing a fab job! (Mr 4 and Miss 2).
The 'pack lunch' is the magnet that created much excitement in the house for me this week! After the first two days of fumbling through the kids packing their own lunches I came up with a game plan and here it is:
I have two baskets in my pantry for the kids (at their eye level)
- Basket one has sweet biscuits, sultanas, dried fruit, any homemade biscuits that we make, etc.
- Basket two is the home to the savoury items. It has items like Jatz, shapes, dip and biscuits, etc.
I have three baskets in my fridge (pictured):
- Basket one has cheese, yoghurt and fruit cups
- Basket two houses pre-cut vegetables with little portions of dip
- Basket three houses yummy summery fruits that like grapes, blueberries, etc all cut up and in boxes ready to eat.
- and then there is the drink space where there is water....
The rules as I stated them to the kids are:
- they can pick only one item from each basket (but they don't have to)
- when they have finished getting their lunch box ready it is to live on their 'little table' in the corner of our family room
- they are to eat at their little table
- they may eat from their lunch box any time they are hungry as long as they check with me first
- they must save their sandwich (which I make while they are collecting all their other goodies - I did get them to make it at first but I will reintroduce this later) for lunch time.
- once the food is all gone from their lunch box, that is it. There is no more food until dinner time.
The kids love doing this! They love the independence of 'choosing' their foods. But the reality is I have already pre-choosen what they will be eating and they are eating so much more healthy because it is all ready to go in kid portions. It has stopped the 'mum, I'm hungry' whinge and I really think that they are now learning to make healthy food choices by default (at least that is my hope). A balance of food!
This whole lunch process is also a great indicator to me of how much food to send to school and it is also giving me a good insight into how my children's hunger differs from day to day.
For the update on our progress of our morning routine....
It is working fabulously! Mr 4 for the last three mornings has gotten up and done all the activities on his board (that lives up stairs) which includes brush teeth, brush hair, wash face, sunscreen on, pyjamas off and away, get dressed and make bed all without being asked!!!! and while I am still in bed. (perhaps we need to work on the timing of brushing teeth though!)
I have also worked out from observation that in the future if things getting a little rough with the morning routine that the 'pack lunch' activity will be my currency! There will be no packing lunch unless all other elements of the routine are completed!
If you pick up the challenge of starting a morning routine at your home, I would love to hear how it is going.
Love the baskets, great idea!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea I shall have to steal it. Love the baskets, where did you get them from? :-)
ReplyDeleteMy oldest started Prep this year and a few weeks before school started we practiced only eating at recess and lunch times. This gave me a very good idea of how hungry she would get with not eating in between times. It also helped her get used to the idea of recess and lunch times.
Might be worth checking with the school if they have a set time for eating, our school gives the Preps 10 minutes eating time inside before recess and lunch. After inside eating time at recess they pack everything away but at lunchtime they can take their lunchboxes outside to finish. So we practiced eating in 10 minutes.
The other great thing about practicing is that kids get the hang of opening containers by themselves, good independence skills.
One note about the sunscreen, my kids always miss bits, as I discovered recently when they get badly sunburnt. How do you make sure they've covered everything?
Hi Marita
ReplyDeleteThe baskets were from Howard Storage.
In the past we have have pretty much set morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea times at home. I have found that the kids have pretty much defaulted to these times. But great idea to check with the school!
For the sunscreen - the kids have a pump action one which gives them quite a big dollop! I supervised the first few times and my son got the hang of it quickly. We taught him to make sure he did his ears and the back of his neck too. Then because there is so much in the dollop, all the left over cream goes down his arms.