Anarchy
Reoccurs
D.... diabolically? disasterously? I cannot think of what the 'D' could stand for! Hmmm.
But the point still stands. After a weekend of too much screen time and not enough structure, Mondays hit my son hard. He can't just "go with the flow" like some kids can - whether its the possible Asperger's, the anxiety of expectations, or the sensory possibilities of working on paper, or a combination - its just very hard. Last week I tried the field trip on Monday, but that threw off the schedule and caused issues all week, so not only was Monday hard, but Tuesday and Wednesday as well.
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| AO Week 3 nearly done! I love my high-tech dry erase pencil method. |
So what can be done to ease the transition from weekend to weekday? Many ideas include having less freedom and more structure on the weekend, but those don't sound appealing to me at all, and since my husband is usually home on the weekend, it wouldn't work at my house. That's not to say there is no structure at all, but there's nothing that looks like work other than non-negotiable chores. No mandatory reading or writing, in other words.
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| The Boy in one of our many trees |
Another set of ideas includes making Monday special in some way. A hot beverage or special treat after morning chores, as the school day begins, for instance. I'm thinking an extra cup (pot?) of coffee might help me in the short term, but I can't think of a thing for The Boy. We did hot chocolate several times in the winter, but it wasn't a Monday special, so the it lost its novelty. I'm thinking maybe a cartoon or something, followed by a nature walk might help him ease into things but even that will take some getting used to.
What have done to make your Monday less H.A.R.D.?
Daily...the word for our situation is 'daily'. Although diabolically and disastrously fit too :) Oh, wait, should I smile at that? I'll be honest though, we don't have "Mondays"; we have "Thursdays". I have absolutely no advice either. You'd think (okay *I* would think) by now I would be able to get those "...days" in order!
ReplyDeleteDo you do tea time? (Wow- was it *last year* that the AO forum talked about tea time in February?? Goodness time sure does fly! But anyway,) Perhaps tea time on Mondays can help ease y'all into it? We have tea time on Fridays since that's the only day all of us are here. But it's nice to look forward to it.
Here's hoping the rest of the week flows for you!
"Daily" did cross my mind but it really is just worse the first day back. Wonder why your hard day is Thursday? We really don't do tea time...he eats (or chews gum) almost constantly so its hard to make any set meal/snacks special! I could try a late-morning tea time on Mondays, perhaps...
DeleteI don't know how you start your days but, for us, starting our days with a family read aloud helps us transition into school with relative ease. The read aloud isn't a book for school but, rather, one that the kids pick out. They take turns to pick out our family read aloud.
ReplyDeleteOh, I just had another thought! Before the read aloud we also play a few rounds of a favorite game. Again, each child takes a turn to pick out a game that they want to play for that day. Some days we play Frozen Uno, Dutch Blitz or Angry Birds--it all depends on who is picking the game. The game coupled with the book helps our transition.
Oooh, games is a great idea for Mondays! I really need to go through and see what we have that can be played with just the 2 of us and still be fun.
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