Tips and Tricks for Daily Transitions?

When you have a handful of children like I do you find that you need a bit of help with everyday things like transitions between activities, routines, and just daily life in general. When I jumped into homeschooling heat first I had no idea what I was doing. Heck, I barely had the parenting thing down by that point. I was swimming until I learned how to make things work. Structure was vital to keeping our family lif3e running smoothe and getting school time in. Boy, I wish I would have had the teachers training and tools from Mother Goose Time way back then.

A little more experience and a whole lot more to cram in our days and I am still finding great ways to help build our routines and go from one thing to another with less fuss. When the teacher tool bag for September arrived I was happy to see the fun transition cards that help make daily transitions between tasks easier. Reminded me of the tricks my childhood teachers used to keep a classroom of 30+ kids from utter chaos.

Transitions with cheer

The key to the tools Mother Goose Time sent in the September box is making transitions cheerful.
These cards are a great starting point with fun sheers like “Can you hear me?” with the children replying “Yes I can” and “Clean it up. Clean it up.”- Teacher “I got it. I got it.” – children.

Calling out the same things over and over helps children learn how to respond. At first, my kids would roll their eyes. “Really mom?” but after a bit of time they learned to pick out these calls from the hustle of sounds and talking around them allowing a whole lot less yelling on my part.

Anything that helps me have to yell less and appear to have a bit more control over the situation around here is a good thing. I am adding more as we go in hopes of getting control over the chaos that is a household of 8 including two preschoolers, a baby, and an Alzheimer’s patient.

Building routines.

We are slowly working on building new routines in our family. From meals to chores and school we are trying to find the balance that works for us. I have learned a few things along the way.

Make meals the first routine you focus on. When you put meals into the routine first you are less likely to struggle with “Whats for dinner” and “Can we eat yet?”

Give each person a chore to become part of their routines a few times a day. One person wipes down counters, another vacuum the floor, one hunts down dishes for easy washing. When it is all said and done each small routine you build adds up until your home goes smoothly.

Stop by at the end of the month and see how we make the routine cards from Mother Goose time work out for our family. In the meantime go raid the October box and check your set out.