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Kids love routine ... but add a little variety, too
T
he art of a parent or a teacher
is to keep a child’s environ-
ment predictable enough to
feel safe, but challenging enough to
be exci ng.
Winston Churchill
wrote, “Human beings
are of three classes:
those who are toiled to
death, those who are
worried to death and
those who are bored to
death.”
So it is with our
children. We run the
risk of crea ng places
for them that are full of
adult directed busy-
work or toil, and their
personal development
is misdirected. We
might create circum-
stances that are so
unpredictable that
the children are con-
stantly worried about when the
next meal might be or who is going
to bully them next, and therefore
development is paralyzed. Children
subjected to environments that
are so foreseeable that boredom
pervades, become apathe c or
mischievous.
In today’s world, many children
seem to be on a ght schedule
from the me they awake un l
bed me with school, team sports,
special lessons, homework and
more. These children don’t have
the luxury of me to fi gure out who
they are, or the me to dream of
what they might do with their lives.
Other children are overwhelmed
by their circumstances. Television
news and school ac vi es have
these children despairing about
global warming, carbon footprints,
and the world’s water supply. Or
perhaps the family is in turmoil.
Bed mes vary. Meal mes and
places are inconsistent. These chil-
dren don’t know who will pick them
up from school or which house they
will wake up in the morning. These
children’s are caught in a whirlpool
and their development doesn’t
move forward. These children are
robbed of the joy in their lives.
Some children are in situa-
ons where the same rou ne, the
same order of the day, or the same
schedule of 15-minute ac vi es,
dulls their intellectual curiosity.
Boredom disrupts development
and feeds indiff erence or rebellion
in these children.
Young children thrive on rou ne
when we can avoid the boredom
of predictability, when we can give
children new experiences in intrigu-
ing doses, and when we can pro-
vide ac vi es that are based on the
child’s interest versus the needs of
the adults in charge.
What would an interes ng and
exci ng daily pa ern look like for a
child?
The pillars of stability for a child’s
daily rou ne are meal mes and
sleep. Bed me and wake-up mes
for a child should be the same
everyday within fi f-
teen minutes. Three
to fi ve-year-olds
need between 11
to 13 hours of sleep
per day. Children
ages six to twelve
need 10 to 11 hours
of sleep per day, on
average. Arrival and
pickup mes from
school or babysi er
should be the same
everyday. Meal-
mes should be on
a reasonable sched-
ule. Basic physical
needs of food and
sleep need to be on
a predictable me-
table to help the child feel safe and
worry free.
The me between meals and
rest needs to off er an assortment
of ac vi es—indoors and out–
along with presenta on of new
skills, choices to prac ce new skills
and do ac vi es, as well as me to
refl ect and be quiet.
Imagine a place fi lled with pur-
Maren
Schmidt
_______________
Kids Talk™
poseful ac vi es off ered to children
as free choice ac vi es. Imagine a
place built with an underlying struc-
ture of predictable mes for food,
sleep, arrival and departure. Imag-
ine a place that allows our children
to create what Churchill might call
a fourth group of human beings:
People who work for pleasure, and
for whom work and pleasure form
an exci ng and interes ng pa ern
for life.
Imagine a place where children
follow a rou ne of … live to love,
love to learn, learn to live … ad
infi nitum. Imagine a rou ne where
children thrive.
________
Kids Talk™ is an award-winning
column dealing with childhood de-
velopment issues wri en by Maren
Stark Schmidt, M.Ed. She has more
than 25 years experience working
with young children and is the au-
thor of Understanding Montessori:
A Guide for Parents. Contact her via
e-mail at maren@kidstalknews.
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