Family Schedules

I'm extremely ADHD and to keep myself sane, I like routines or schedules or whatever you want to call it. My husband is ADD, he really doesn't seem to have the hyperactivity part. Our son, well let's just say that apples don't fall far from the apple tree. Michael already exhibits signs of ADD/ADHD. Maybe it's just his age. He is only 2 1/2, but then again, with mom and dad both ADD/ADHD, his chances of not being like that are slim to none. Why do I tell you this, because I fell a need to justify the fact that over the last week, I've spend about 7 hours setting up a "Family Schedule." I went out and got a piece of posterboard, determined the time schedule I needed to include along with all the activities that had to fit on it. Then, I picked a colored pencil color for each of us and am now proceeding to include on this board everything we need to do during the week.

I come from a family of teachers. My mom, grandmother, godmother all taught for years. Even I taught college for a short time after finishing my MBA. I tell you this so you'll understand why education is so important to me and why this board includes enough information to make it look like I'm home-schooling my 2 1/2 yr old. I'm really not, but I want him to he ahead of the game when he does start school. I've read about parents who are having their children tutored before they even begin kindergarten. My son is already showing, what his daycare teachers deem as extreme intelligence. I try not to label him. I recently read the book "Nuture Shock" and discovered I was doing everything it said not to. My husband and I don't want to take any chances, so we're re-evaluating how we talk to our son. I'll let you know what happens in a few years. Anyway, at daycare, our son has a set schedule. Everyday they have art, music, play, reading and time for manipulative activities to develop fine motor skills. My schedule includes all of this on the weekend. I figure, the more his schedule is consistent everyday, the easier it will be on all of us. Again, I'll let you know how it goes.

Part of my Sunday afternoon routine is fixing lunches for the entire week ahead. The last of it is about done, so I guess I'm now about done here. More later. Hope your holidays were great and have a wonderful and properous new year.

New Year Resolutions

I use to make at least 1 resolution every Dec 31. Now, I don't bother. I've decided verbalizing, even internally, any type of resolution just makes me feel worse when I end up breaking it. That being said, I do have a goal starting this year - that is to spend more time being silly with my 2 1/2 yr old son and less time worrying about how clean my house is. I'm really anal about my home. I want things to at least be neat so we're not tripping over shoes, toys, etc. We have a room off our kitchen that is basically the playroom. The problem is that a lot of the toys end up in the living room cluttering the floor. I tried to deal with it and I just can't. I could handle it for about a week and then I have a melt down. My mom made a suggestion, so simple, yet it never occured to me. We now let our son play with 1 thing at a time in the living room. That 1 thing may not be just 1 toy, but may be a bunch of his matchbox cars. However, at least I know when he switches to the next toy, all the cars go back to the play room and I get to keep my nice, neat living room.