As our family begins our third week of getting up early enough to savor morning time together, I'm still weary and the girls are still thriving. I continue to marvel at how much they enjoy this new approach to Schroeder mornings. Some surprising results include:
1. This morning our eight year-old woke up on her own at 5:40. She came into our room and snuggled up in bed with us. We ended up turning on the radio and listening to the classical station for 30 minutes. We sang along to the Barber of Seville and I tried to remember the Bugs Bunny cartoon set to it. She loved it so much she requested that we set her alarm so she can come to our bed and do it again tomorrow. We'll see how that goes!
2. The girls are able to sleep in on the weekends. I was worried that early rising during the week would translate to perky girls at our bedside at 6:00 on weekends. Not thus far. But we were camping this weekend so we were up late and active all day. Perhaps subsequent weekends will not play out the same.
3. By the end of last week we were beginning to see some of the benefits of having the girls make their own lunches. E came home one day and said, "I didn't make enough lunch today. Tomorrow I'll pack more." And then she did. I love the independence and responsibility she is beginning to assume with this simple and yet meaningful task.
Some not-so-surprising results include:
1. I still can't get myself to bed before 11:00, with the exception of one night during our camping trip when I went to sleep at 9:00. (That was heavenly!)
2. My New Yorkers are piling up and I haven't even bought the next book for our book group. Gotta figure out how to squeeze in some reading time during the day.
3. I am now conditioned to wake up early and can't sleep past 6:00 even when I want to. Sigh.
4. My tired husband keeps asking, "Couldn't we sleep in just a little tomorrow?"
Here's a link to the Rabbit of Seville, in case you wanna remember too.
http://youtu.be/55G7T8VdWEs
This comment sent to me by egately:
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that the girls have taken to this schedule so easily. Are they going to bed earlier? I am tempted to bump our wake time a little earlier. This is due to the fact that one of my children, who is in school for the first time this year, seems to need an inordinate amount of time to decide what to eat and then to actually eat it.
I definitely understand the programming to get up early. I don't think I will ever be able to sleep late in my life due to the "conditioning" of my twins. Sigh. We slept one day this weekend until 7:30 which was shocking. I then proceeded to stay in bed until 8:00...but I digress in the wrong direction!
Of course I LOVE the idea of getting the kids to make their own lunches. However, I am not up for tackling that just yet.
Congratulations making it two weeks. I remain interested in your experiment.