Bedtime Rhythm

I have been wanting to post on Ginger's bedtime rhythm ever since Nicole put up her post and asked for submissions.  It has taken days to get round to it.  DH is doing study by distance and he is always on the computer in the evening:)

I guess our bedtime rhythm starts with an early dinner.  I try to have dinner on the table by about 5pm.  This works at the moment because DH is usually home by 4:45.  Next year he will have a longer commute so we might have to revisit this.

After dinner we do kitchen clean-up and Ginger helps to clear the table by putting the placemats away.  

Then, every second night, it is bath time.  This takes about half an hour because Ginger loves her bath!  After her bath or straight after dinner, depending on the night, she has playtime in the loungeroom.  Generally there is a lot of story reading during this time.

At about 6:30 we get her into her sleepsack and clean her teeth.  Then she has her evening feed (or nurse for my North American readers) in our bedroom.  That takes her about 10-15 minutes.  

I then transfer her into her cot and we have a bedtime story.  This tends to be a longer picture book; one she wouldn't have the attention span for during the day.

Trapped - hence the longer attention span!

Then I say a prayer for her (hopefully as her speech develops she will be able to say this for herself).  It is the prayer I said as a little girl; fortunately it is solidly in my memory as the plaque I learnt it off has been lost in the mists of time. (I just found this version for a boy ).

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

Let angels guard me through the night

And keep me safe 'til morning light.

Help me to know thy love for me

So I a loving child may be

With generous thoughts and happy face

And pleasant words in every place.

Help me to always say what's true

Be willing in each task I do

Please help me to be good each day

And lead me in thy holy way.

I pray whatever wrongs I've done

You will forgive them every one

Be near me when I wake again

And bless all those I love.

Amen

Then I tuck Ginger in - tight- and she gets kisses, and Dolly usually gets presented for them too.

Then I sing our good night song - it is to the tune of Good Night Ladies. If you don't know it and would like the tune leave me a message in the comments and I can take a copy of the sheet music.  Obviously I substitute 'Ginger' for her real name:)

Good night Ginger

Good night Ginger

It's time to go to sleep.

Sleep well Ginger

Sleep well Ginger

I'm going to leave you now.

Then I say 'good night' and leave her to self settle.  She is usually asleep by 7pm.

Steiner School Open Day

I was all excited to post yesterday but then events intervened - like the three hour power outage, Ginger only taking a 30 minute nap and a trip to the dentist  - after which I had to come home and seek long-distance comfort from my Mum, as DH was not answering his phone. I am such a chicken when it comes to going to the dentist and now I have to go back for dental work on Thursday - nothing major but I had a very bad experience with a dentist as a seven year old and have, consequently, been scarred for life with regard to having any work done:)

Sending Ginger to a Steiner School (or Waldorf as it is known in the States) has been something I (as opposed to we!) have been mulling over for a few years; i.e. before Ginger even arrived on the scene.  I had been really looking forward to going to the Samford Valley Festivalley in a couple of weeks time.  In fact it has been on the calender for over a year.  But, service needs have intervened and DH is now going to be out field when it is on.  And, a 5 hour return trip with Ginger solo does not appeal to me.  So, instead, DH, Ginger and I went to the school open day on the weekend. 

I was so impressed with the school and it has confirmed everything I thought was wonderful about Steiner education.  It is not airy-fairy at all - the standard of the work was amazing.  DH was impressed too and has finally agreed it is a goer at least for primary school.  I was so excited about him being for it - as I have been enthusiastic for a while.  And, while not being dismissive of it, he has not exactly been enamored with the idea. 

Now to just make sure we are in a posting location with a school available!  While steiner and montesorri schools have been able to opt out of the national curriculum (the quality of which I think is questionable anyway - as do my parents both with 30+ years teaching experience) - they are setting up their own national curriculums so Ginger will be no worse off in a steiner school than a conventional school with regards to our regular moves.  Steiner schools do start kids a year later - ie - for Class 1 or Year 1 (here in Australia) they would be turning 7 rather than 6; though as my Mum said (with 35 years of conventional year 1 teaching behind her) a later start would solve half the remedial reading problems (particularly for boys).

 

Oh, and an apology in advance for the quality of these photos - I only had our point and shoot with me.

Ginger loved the early-childhood classrooms and had a melt down when we had to leave.  She was busy playing with Bertha (her doll - which she carried the whole 3 hours we were there) and the baskets. 

As you can probably tell from the volume of photos I was so inspired by the early childhood space and want to implement the ideas - and more particularly the simplicity in our own home.  I have put DH to work sourcing a circular saw from one of his work colleagues so we can make Ginger some tree-stump blocks!  

The next photos are of a mixture of lower primary classrooms.

Love, love, love the wicker baskets - they are one thing I keep my eye open for at op shops.

I had the Sunday School song - Joshua fought the battle of Jericho... stuck in my head after seeing this.

Isn't that peg idea great!

The school goes right through to year 12, but we got talking to the high school teachers and I forgot to take photos.  Did manage to snap one in the class 5 room (I think - I can't be sure anymore).

I have so much food for thought after our weekend visit.  The school just felt right to us. It might sound odd, but the parent group felt like they fitted us too - and, to be honest, I haven't really yet found my 'people' since Ginger has been born so the potential of finding a group of people I fit with was exciting.   DH even said he would consider Steiner for high school - a concession I never thought I would hear:)

Establishing Rhythm: Wake Up

To be honest, for the first 6 months of Ginger' life I struggled to find any sort of rhythm in our day.  I was deceived by a popular parenting book into thinking I could set a feeding and sleeping schedule for my baby.  Not so, I was the one with a baby who wasn't very interested in feeding - so that all important, start the day with a feed at 7am clause, caused me untold stress because Ginger never wanted to eat then.  But then, around 9 am she might take a small feed, which of course threw us out for the next scheduled feed at 11 am!  I felt like I was playing constant catch up with feeds and was trapped in the house because of her 'scheduled sleeps'.

Then, late last year, I read You are Your Child's First Teacher by Rhima Baldwin Dancy.  I had a light bulb moment; Ginger and I could find a rhythm for our days without needing to have a schedule.  A rhythm would give her a clue as to what the usual order of things were and would allow me to get the chores done as I needed (without always waiting for her naps!).

Dancy suggests using songs to ease transitions and clue your child as to what is happening.  I have two I am using for Ginger's wake-up - Lyn's Clapping Song and Merrily, Merrily.

Lyn's Clapping Song by June Epstein
Every day is a happy day as soon as Lyn's awake,
She claps her hands and she nod her head and gives it a little shake.
She looks at us with her twinkling eyes and in a little while,
Everybody who looks at her begins to sing and smile.
With a tra-la-la .......... (repeat with tra-la-la)

Merrily, Merrily
Merrily, merrily greet the morn,
Cherrily, cherrily sound the horn,
Hark! the echo, hear it play, O'er hill and dale and far away.

The words and music are from Merrily, Merrily: A Book of Song and Rhymes by the Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia.  I am pretty sure it is out of print now, as my copy was my mother's when I was a young child.  Besides which, there is no longer a Nursing Mothers' Association in Australia, only the Breastfeeding Association.  I have also heard good things too about The Singing Day and hope to get a copy of that later in the year so Ginger and I can work on incorporating more songs into our day.