Magical, marvelous, mystical, mighty Monday
Terrific, tremendous Tuesday
Wild, wonderful, wistful, wacky Wednesday
What is your morning routine?
Have you ever mixed it up and intentionally choose different options?
Today I stepped outside with the early morning sun and decided to start my day with a walk.
We currently are having a break from our hot humid August days. The temperature is 67 degrees as I write sitting on my front porch. As I walked down the driveway and turned left to walk my usual route, I decided instead of turning left at the end of the road to go down the tree sheltered path that is an overgrown road, to turn right and loop around my block first. I was first motivated by the idea of saving the tree covered path for the end of my walk because it would be cooler as the sun ascends higher in the sky. I discovered that saving the path for the end gave me something to look forward to at the end of my walk.
Walking my path in reverse
Choose again
Step out of our comfort zone
When my kids were young, we would have breakfast for dinner or eat our desert first to break up the monotony of day to day life. After 17 years of structured education and years of working with a strict time schedule, I discovered my true self is more spontaneous than my life had allowed.
As I unschooled myself while facilitating my children’s educational experience, our schedule became less structured. As my children grew in this unschooling lifestyle, I also learned the benefit of routines. Some children need more structure than others to navigate the world that is there environment for growth. Despite believing it was my son, my first born, who needed the structure more than my second child, I later saw how her anxiety left her floating in a sea trying to hang on and how structure helped to ground her. Maybe I did not provide as much structure as she needed. I know I have made many mistakes over the past 25 years raising my children, yet I can acknowledge my mistakes and see them as opportunities.
Opportunities for reflection and growth.
Experience is our greatest teacher and mistakes can rise to the top of the list.
I entitled this post, “Wacky Wednesday” and here I am talking about structure and routine.
I believe it is important to create intentional days of doing it all different.
Maybe as an unschooler, we could have a day of school like structure and see how that feels.
Or just make some different choices.
When our children are young, it is easier to facilitate this experience by serving ice cream at breakfast or having a pjs and movie day. As they reach the preteen years, their circle of comfort has expanded and time with friends becomes vital as does opportunities for life outside the home. Make an agreement ahead of time to have a day where you jump in the car and let your child(ren) choose which direction you travel. Let them pick what they will eat or where.
Allow them to make active choices to step out of the box and do the day differently. Young kids will often enjoy this opportunity as well and what feels wacky to them might look much different than what we would imagine. Step into their world to create a wild, wonderful, wistful, wacky Wednesday!
Child-led Learning 