I have never been an organised person. As a child, I was affectionatly called 'Linzi time-waster', due to my tendancy to daydream the day away. I was the student who was always rushing to school to avoid being late, doing my homework at the last minute and the person last out of the door. Once I became a mother, I threw down Gina Ford's books in disgust at their insistence on a strict routine and bumbled my way through my son's babyhood. With no rhythm to our day, life became chaotic and stressful. My refusal to adheer to a routine came from a life long hatred of them.
It just is not in my nature to set my day out in a strict manor.
Now, enter Waldorf education. My growing understanding and love of the Waldorf way since we decided to send our eldest to Alder Bridge Steiner School in Janurary has led me to look into the idea of Rhythm. Rhythm is not the same as routine, as I initially thought. It enables you and your child to flow from one activity to the next, and when done right produces the effortless harmony seen in Steiner Kindergartens. Whether we like it or not, rhythm flows through us - in our beating hearts, in our constant breathe in and out. Our days have a rhythm - at the basic level we rise in the morning and go to bed in the evening. Our months and years also have a rhythm - seasonal changes and celebrations and mark the passing of time. Once I realised that Rhythm is not strict and by-the-clock, but rather a guide for when we do certain activities, I wanted to know more.
I turned to this book, You Are Your Child's First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin Dancy. A passage stood out for me;
"Rhythm is also a blessing for parents, because it enables the daily activity of life to flow more smoothly, require less energy, and become a platform that supports the family, its activities, and interactions. Many mothers don't discover the secrets of rhythm until the have two or more children, and suddenly there isn't enough time not to be organised!"
And two wonderful articles, one from the fabulous blog The Magic Onions and the other from the inspiring e-magazine Rhythm of the Home. Inspired by what I read, I decided to add more rhythm to our day. Today is only the second day and I already feel like the kids are happier because they know what is coming next, and I am able to stay more calm and in control. We are all flowing better. New habits take a while to become ingrained, so time will tell how well we do at keeping the rhythm in our day.
In hand with trying to have more rhythm in our day, I am trying to do more crafting. I love crafting, and am truly happy when making something with my hands. I found it difficult to do things with my kids, because there was always the washing up to do, laundry to fold or a mess to tidy. Now I know that doing things with my children is as important, if not more so, than housework. The housework will wait, these precious moments with my boys easily slip by. And so, here is some of the autumnal crafting we have been doing.
We have also been enjoying breadmaking, but the results of that are devoured too fast by my two bread monsters to photograph!
