the one about routine

i've been thinking a lot about routine lately.  how and where to have it.  when to hold tightly to it and when to hold loosely.

our first official nature walk on friday.

avery sketched pikes peak and garden of the gods.  

beautiful day. 

routine has always been very important to me.  i was nuts about schedules when i was a children's pastor and then even more nuts when avery was a baby. ;)

around the huge tree by the park the girls found 4 or 5 of these very fuzzy caterpillars. 

the kids at church THRIVE when there is routine.  they know what to expect when.  when i teach the same way, in the same order, week after week, i see a beautiful rhythm emerge.  if i'm predictable, then they're predictable.  if they know what to expect, it's rare that they don't meet my expectations of them.  i love to see that happen in my little classroom.

chocolate milk after a HOT nature walk seems like a good routine, no??

homeschooling has taken my love for routine and schedules to a whole new level.  this excites me and frustrates me.  i'm passionate about this and i'm exhausted by this.  it's not a neat and tidy and well prepared for sunday school classroom where i can have every minute planned out.  it's hard to do the same things, in the same order day after day in real life, in a real home, with real kids and with real parents.  but, BUT, when we are in a groove and we are following our routine? it's beautiful and i'm so thankful for the "rails" we've laid down to keep our train going in the right direction.

they all three play "transformers" all of the time these days.

i can't say enough good things about educating the wholehearted child by sally clarkson.  i borrowed from the library and quickly realized that this was one i would want to reference often.  i love what she says about routine:

avery reading nursery rhymes after Bible has become an adorable routine. ;)

routine is simply a habitual pattern of living created by effort applied regularly over time.  once a pattern of living is established in one area of your lifestyle and schedule, it becomes an invisible, self-generating force to hold that part of your home universe together and keep it from coming unraveled.   

a frosty for my adorable goal-scorer

so for instance if you want to be someone who runs or works out and you establish a routine or a pattern of when and where and how long you will work out and then follow that for a few weeks, it becomes a natural part of your lifestyle, you almost don't even have to think about "working it in" anymore, because you are in the habit of doing it.

she goes on to say this:

for every action taken to establish routine, there is an equal and similar reaction generating greater amounts of routine energy; and for every action not taken to establish routine, there is a corresponding decrease in total home routine energy.  all that to say that it takes a lot less energy to live with established routines than it does to live without them.  

athletic and smart.  adorable. 

it is WORK to establish routines for and with your kids.  there have been lots of mornings where the girls say "do we HAVE to do morning routine today!?!"  and i say "yes", not because i really care if their bed is made, but because i want them to get used to following a pattern in the morning and i'm hopeful that if they are used to regularly following patterns and routines in our school day, that they will be able to continue to make decisions in their life because it's part of their routine or their schedule.  i don't want them to wait until they actually FEEL like or WANT to make the right choice, i want right, healthy choices to become habit.  the train will follow the tracks that are laid down. ;)

here are ian and ash, kinda, sorta singing our morning routine song.