Rythmns, routines... and a new Prime Minister.

As I write this tonight, David Cameron is sitting in a big, black car heading towards Buckingham Palace about to be made our new Prime Minister. He must be so excited!!! I don't know whether to be pleased. We don't yet know what the terms are of this arrangement. I had voted for his policies on marriage and the family but it already sounds as if those have been compromised. Well. When did any politician ever keep their promises. We shall have to wait and see.
Anyway, back to life at 'Little House'.
I've been thinking about our daily routines. Particularly with consideration to waldorf style rhythms. I am at home with a baby who is moving into toddlerhood and it can be very challenging/tiring keeping her contented/amused while trying to get everything else done. To be honest it can be very tempting to stick on CBeebies to buy myself some time. I've been looking at the waldorf style wooden and felt toys on various websites for inspiration but, by golly, they are expensive. Way out of our league in terms of budget.
So I've not exactly come up with a solution to that situation but I did introduce a new element to our daily routine aimed more at the elder two. After dinner I like to try and get things cleared up as much as possible. So does Hubby, when he is here. I went up for a very early bath yesterday evening and I could hear Hubby trying to get tidied up. He was moaning at the children when they tried to get anything out of the cupboards to play with. "No! Don't get anything out!" So what are they to do. Again it is tempting to put the telly on for some peace. Well waldorf has a strong focus on creative development, arts and crafts, that sort of thing. So I want to try allocating half an hour after dinner to 'quiet time' when they do a quiet, not too messy activity. Tonight they were presented with a craft box and the activity of choice was an engraving art kit.


Here is Henry's. He uses an engraving tool to trace and scratch off the surface to reveal rainbow colours underneath.

Honor's was a bit more detailed - a silver horse.

They were both very excited about it! This worked well tonight in that it kept them quietly busy - just what I wanted. Honor made a real good effort to concentrate.

It didn't help much with the baby, though. The other two had to move themselves to the big table because she kept trying to grab their engraving tool. I put down these cushions for her to play on. She liked that - for about 2 minutes, but was soon grabbing at my legs as I tried to wash up.

I shall keep on thinking!