Simplicity Parenting Treasures

So I have officially finished the book Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne, M.Ed.

There are so many treasures in it that I would like to share with you, but unfortunately that would keep you here for a couple hours.

So instead I am going to share with you a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Too much stuff leads to too little time and too little depth in the way kids see and explore their world."

"With "predictability" a child knows what to expect."

"Relationships are often built in the intervals, the space between activities, when nothing much is going on."

"Children who've had a role in preparing a meal assume ownership of it. More simply: When children make the food, they're less likely to throw it, or refuse it."

"Family dinners get much simpler when they're predictable: Monday pasta night, Tuesday rice night, Wednesday soup night, and so on." ( I LOVE this idea!)

"Before you say something, ask yourself these three questions: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?"

Now those quotes barely scratch the surface, but it's all I can offer at the moment :)

A reader asked me a couple weeks ago what my typical day/schedule looks like. Since a big part of Simplicity Parenting is on the Rhythm & Schedules of children I wanted to read it first before sharing my own.

Basically Payne says that children need to know what's next. They need predictability in their lives so that they can fully feel secure in their worlds. They also need time to just play. Payne says that boredom is a gift, a gift that should be freely given to children. It is only through boredom that creativity can be found. A child's daily or weekly schedule shouldn't be so packed that they don't have time to just "be".

In my case, I am home all day with my daughter. We only have one car and my husband is in school full-time. I get the car once or twice a week. On those days I do grocery shopping or other errands. I don't try to jam those days full of errands though because I know my daughter can only sit in a shopping cart/car seat for so long.

My typical day is very typical. For those who care, here is a brief summary :)

- Wake up, slowly make our way downstairs, coffee/breakfast (the coffee's just for me), dishes while Dear Daughter (DD) plays, food preparation with or without DD help, prayer time.

- Upstairs to get dressed, make the beds, tidy up the rooms, brush teeth. All the while DD just busies herself with whatever suits her.

- Downstairs to do daily cleaning, if she is able to DD helps me (like with dusting, "trying" to sweep, etc.)

- Snack/lunch time

- Activity. I usually have one type of activity I try to do with DD a day (which is a separate schedule) that I might do with her before her nap. I could really go into detail but for brevity's sake Mondays I do a classification/sorting activity, Tuesday I do sequencing, Wednesday I do matching/memory games, etc., then DD takes a nap.

Believe me it DOES take a couple hours to get to this point :) I just try to really be present to my daughter and if she wants me to read a couple books or play or do a puzzle, I do those things with her and when I am thru I proceed with what's next on my list.

- Wake up from nap, snack.

- Playtime. I try to go outside with her once a day if the weather permits, even in the cold weather. I think it's important for her to have a change of environment and she really does love being outside.

- Prepare dinner (we eat pretty early) while DD helps or just plays.

- Dinner time, I clean up while DD plays with her daddy. The rest of the evening is kind of up in the air.

- Bath time usually around 7 pm which can last up to 45 minutes, since she LOVES being in the water. Snack, read books and bed!

I do have to say that I love the calmness and simplicity of my days. While I was running my Etsy shop the days weren't so calm and stress free for me, but I have realized that I really do need to maintain a sense of peace within me in order to be the best Mother and Wife that I can be.

I hope this helped! And if you haven't already, check out Simplicity Parenting from the library!!

Simplicity Parenting

I didn't technically make a New Year's resolution this year.

I guess I half forgot to and half thought it was pointless since I never really stick to them anyways :/

But as I think about it now I did make a very simple resolution at the beginning of 2010, whether I was intending it to be my New Year's resolution or not. I decided to temporarily close my Etsy shop.

I know, I know, I've built it up for so many months and business was going great and yada yada yada.

I think actually part of the problem was that business was going so well that I sort of lost focus of my first two vocations in life...that of being a wife and mother.

I needed to start my Etsy shop last year, I needed to have a creative outlet all the while being a stay-at-home mom. I needed to know I could bring in the dough on my own accord.

So I proved all those things very well.

Yes I could do it, yes I was capable.

I also proved a lot of other things.

I was a much testier person when I had deadlines to meet and orders to fulfill on time.

I let my cooking slide and lost the joy I once found in preparing healthy and yummy food for my family. I often got annoyed that I had a little person tagging at my shirt because I just had "one more thing to finish!"

So I am taking a break.

And I must say it feels...very good. :)

So after I had started to simplify my own life a little I read about a book called, "Simplicity Parenting" by Kim John Payne, M.Ed.

Perfect, I thought, I SO need to read that.

Well I am about a chapter into in and I have to say that I can already tell it is one I will have to buy very soon because I am hating the fact that I can't highlight like every other sentence in my borrowed copy!

Basically, here's the gist of it all. The author has been a school counselor and family-counselor therapist for many years and has found that the missing piece in many children's lives is simplicity. As a result so many children are suffering from anxiety, ADD, ADHD, OCD. Children are being so bombarded with toys, books, activities, that they don't have time to be children! Take out 3/4 of all they have in their life and they will be happier, less anxious, more attentive, etc.

He outlines 4 ares of life that need to be simplified: their environment, rhythm, schedules and filtering out of the adult world.

Now since I haven't read the entire book yet I can't go too much in-depth but I have to say I love what he says about a child's environment. Much of it goes along with the Montessori principles that I already love and have put into practice. He suggests only having half a dozen books on the shelf at a time. The rest can be put away and used as a sort of library to borrow from every week. Toys should be kept at a bare minimum and should be mostly limited to those items that foster creativity in a child. So think of all those toys that are supposed to "entertain" your child...pitch em. In their place put building blocks, puzzles, creative materials, construction toys, etc.

I have mostly tried to keep the amount of toys my daughter has down to a minimum anyways but I went even further in the past couple of days...I mean honestly there are so many things in our living room she hasn't touched in weeks! So off to storage they went!

The same with books too....we have SO many books I didn't know where to keep them all, plus I was going to the library once a week too, and i noticed that my daughter really was losing interest in reading all together. So out went the books. And literally, like magic i swear ( which I don't' even believe in) she was super interested in her books again.

I will definitely write more about the book when I read more....stay tuned!