Some Mondays are a pleasure. Kids are happy, helpful and don't need to be nagged.
This is one of those days. I came into the schoolroom feeling slightly behind schedule, I now have finished all the annoying jobs and I am just waiting for the marking to come in.
When the kids are well rested and get to bed early on a Sunday night you notice the difference in a week. Instead of getting behind on a Monday. Hounding the kids all Tuesday. The kids feel pressured and rebellious on Wednesday. Everyone is tired and grumpy on Thursday. By Friday we are grateful it is all over.
This week we will get through all Mondays work with a happy attitude in the classroom. Plenty of laughter and everyone chatty. The quality of work is a lot better. The handwriting is less rushed.
There is much research about kids and sleep, while I am not going to quote links I am going to tell you that kids need 10 to 12 hours.
For example ...
- Wake Up at 6am - Bedtime 6pm to 8 pm
- Wake Up at 7am - Bedtime 7pm to 9 pm
I know it can be hard on a property to get the kids to bed early and maybe that is why as a child my mother made us have 1 to 2 hours resting on our bed until we were 9 years old. We could read but we couldn't talk and had to lay down.
Some other families and govies I talked to the other day actually let the kids have a 40 minutes rest in a big comfy day bed in the schoolroom. The govie would sometimes practice relaxation techniques where you get them to close their eyes.
An early bedtime for all on a Sunday does make a big difference. I swear my weeks like you have described are happening more and more mainly because of the end of the year tiredness. We all have our bad days and tiredness makes them worse and more frequent.
ReplyDeleteI think the most important thing and probably one of the hardest things to do is to go into the schoolroom with the attitude that what happened yesterday stays there and that today is a new day but boy it is hard sometimes.