Big Time-- Getting To School On Time

Objective:  Get to school on time.

Theory:  Clocks are too small and too high in the air for children to see.  If they were lower and bigger it would help our son, TsukiMoon  have a better internal sense of time.  Then little notes help TsukiMoon remember all the things to do in the morning and help show how much time he has until the next duty.

On The Ground:

The beginning of the school year was awful for getting out the door in the morning.  I hate rushing and hate to be late, yet that's what we always were.  Something had to change.  TsukiMoon would get caught up in reading and I would run around getting things done.  To manage myself and him both was too much, he needed to take more of a role in the morning's routine.  On top of that he had no sense of time.

Maybe all kids at this age have a challenge with internalizing time.  TsukiMoon couldn't read the clock, other then a digital, so two basics of time parts of time reading and understanding were not part of his equation.  How to change that?

I don't know where the idea came from but it just seem to make sense as TsukiMoon squinted up at the clock, high on the wall, that he clearly couldn't see it well.  I went to Ikea and bought their largest clock, over 3 feet across, 61cm, it's perfect.  

I then created little tags.  TsukiMoon and I discussed what chores would be assigned to the morning routine.  It was important for him to feel ownership of his day so he also decided what activities he would like to do before others.  We agreed that toothbrushing would come after breakfast but the flow of the morning was up to him.  He determined how much time he needed for each task and then lengthened or shortened the amount of time based on how long it actually took.  All in all it was about of week of trial and error to create the schedule.

In the first month he would run back and forth to the clock to remind himself what the next task was.  It was eye-opening because I hadn't realized that he didn't know what he needed to do, he couldn't store the sequence in his head.  Having the list up and seeing where the minute hand was help give him a solid understanding of time. 

I don't need to micro-manage, yell, or feel any frustration.  He owns his morning, which is now peaceful for both of us.  He tells me when we need to leave for school--perfect, I couldn't ask for anything more.  I got it though because not only do we get to school on time he now; read a clock and has internalized the passage of time.