Summer is upon us and it is often the most difficult time to maintain a regular daily rhythm. It is natural to become a bit more loose with your daily rhythm when school lets out and the summer sun is calling us to spend more time outside, but don’t abandon your rhythmic ways completely.
This episode is all about rhythm and how to keep it going in a comfortable way throughout the summer.
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Shownotes
Types of rhythm
- yearly (the seasons)
- monthly (many things in the financial realm)
- weekly (weekdays/weekends)
- daily (mealtimes, waking and sleeping)
A great article about rhythm at Lavender’s Blue Homeschool website.
Waldorf Daily Rhythm
Rhythm should support:
- Your family’s well-being (meals, self-care, etc.)
- Your family’s culture and values
Rhythm Hacks
- Start with where you are. Don’t do what I did when I suddenly decided to turn my family into morning people. I recognized the value of spending some time outside every day, but it didn’t need to happen first thing in the morning.
- Think of the things that must happen and build around them.
- Create a rhythm that is unique to your family. Don’t look up the activities that happen in a Waldorf kindergarten and build on that. Identify the things that are important to your family and look for ways to strengthen those values.
How to Improve Your Family’s Daily Rhythm
- Start with an observation of a typical day. Write out your activities, especially the key moments — waking, sleeping, mealtimes, etc. Write down times if you know them. If not, just write out the flow of the day. What stands out and was significant about the day?
- Was your family’s well-being supported by the rhythm you lived out this day? did the meals get made, the dishes washed, the teeth brushed, etc.? Usually these are the first things to be done, so you may feel pretty good about your rhythm when it comes to your family’s well-being.
- What is one aspect of your family’s well-being that could have been better supported this day?
- Change one aspect of your rhythm to better support your family’s well-being.
- Take another look at your summary of your daily rhythm and ask yourself the following question. What family values does this rhythm express?
- Identify what values your family has that are not expressed in this rhythm. Would someone looking from the outside guess that outside time/reading every day/doing chores together is an important value to your family?
- Choose one value and make one change to your rhythm to better support your family’s values.
Note that you are choosing only two things to change about your rhythm, and hopefully they’re pretty minor changes! The goal is not to completely turn your rhythm upside-down. And remember, it takes a month to create or change a habit. Be patient with yourself and try to stay consistent for a month before making any other changes.
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