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Felicity's bedroom
routine (May 2015)
If bathing, start
about 7:10pm
If no bath needed,
start about 7:30pm
Goal is to have
Felicity settled in bed by 8:10pm-ish
Take medicine
syringes and 'inside-cup' of milk upstairs with you to make it
simpler. (Inside cup is a cup with a lid, filled with whole milk and
zapped in microwave for about 20-25 seconds.)
Step 1 – at the
top of the stairs, direct Felicity into the bathroom to sit on the
potty and try once more. While she's sitting on the potty, put her
toothpaste (top shelf in the cabinet under her hairbobble box
usually – not the adult toothpaste) on the toothbrush and have
her brush her teeth. (Whatever toy or animal she is holding can
'help' her brush her teeth. 'EEEEeee' means smile and brush the
front of the teeth, 'Aaaaaaaah' means brushing the tops of the molars
above and below.) If she's not had a bath, also wet down a
corner of a wash rag and let her wash her mouth and face. She'll
usually ask where she still needs to wipe off her face and expects to
be shown by pointing to your own face.
If she still hasn't
finished the potty by the time this is done, go and get her Pjs and
pull-up from the bedroom to save time. (Pull-ups are either on
top of the dresser, or in the top lef-thand drawer. The Pajama
drawer is the top full-length drawer. The My little pony Pjs are the
current favorite. If they're not available, they're 'in the wash'.)
You can take off her day clothes and put them straight into the
laundry basket in the bathroom if she's still not finished with the
potty. Dress her in the pull-up and Pjs as soon as she finishes the
potty to save time.
Her goal during
this time is to have enough time for '3 stories.' Remind her when
you're climbing the stairs – 'Great! We're going to read 3 stories
tonight!' And if there's any slow-down or resistance/ignoring
instructions in the bathroom routine, the reply, 'Well, I guess we
might only have time for 2 stories...' usually starts things
progressing again. There's only been a couple of days with
significant behaviour when I've had to actually take away stories,
but those times I've had to say 'I know, I want three stories too!
But we will have to try again tomorrow because you weren't listening
when mommy said to........'
When she's dressed
in PJs, it's time to go into her room and choose 3 stories. She
tends to focus and settle better in a clean room, so depending on
time and how messy the room is, she can help to sort toys back into
their appropriate boxes.
Clearing
the room:
Legos
and plastic jungle animals go into the clear lidded box. Ponies
figures and sylvanian families go into the purple Pony box. All doll
house furniture goes into the doll house. Farm animals, rubber ducks
and farm stuff goes into the soft farmhouse. Soft toys go into the
green laundry hamper. All cloth food goes into the clear cylindrical
tub. Tea dishes go on the tray on top of the bookcase. It takes
generally less than 5 minutes to put everything away myself –
slightly longer if she 'helps' (but I try to make her help depending
on time and how tired she is to set precedence!)
Story time -
Shut the curtains
before story time and turn on the green bug light and the pink flower
light. You can have the overhead lights on too if there's not enough
light to read. Picking out 3 stories first is generally better. It
allows control on short/long stories and it means that if she wants
more than one story in a longer book, you can 'trade' it from the
stories you've already picked. For example, one story out of the
Bible story book counts as one story – not the whole book as one
story (since there are 5 stories in each book.) Give her her milk to
drink on story 2 or 3 so she gets most of it out of the way before
questions.
After story time,
the overhead lights go off and I usually try to turn off the green
bug light as well before 'Questions.' If she's been playing with
'pokey toys' (ie, plastic ones), this is the time they have to leave
the bed too. This is the list of questions she's learned at explorers
and memory verses I've happened to teach her at one point or another.
Questions:
Q: Who made you?
A: God
Q:What else did God
make?
A: All things
At this point,
she sometimes gets quite silly. I sometimes have to give her the
reminder that we won't do the questions if she's just going to be
silly.
Q:Why did God make
you and all things?
A: For his own glory
Q:Where is God?
A: Everywhere
Q: What is God?
A: A spirit
Q:What is a spirit
A: An invisible
being
Q:Can you see God?
A: No, but he always
sees me
Q:Does God know all
things?
A: Yes, nothing can
be hidden from God
Q:How many Gods are
there?
A: There is only one
God.
Q: What are the 3
persons of God?
A: The father, the
son, and the holy spirit
Q: Who is God's son?
A: The Lord Jesus
Christ
Q: Did Christ stay
in the grave when he died?
A: No, he rose again
on the third day
Q: Where is Christ
now?
A: He's in heaven,
praying for us.
Q: What is sin?
A: Sin means
disobeying God
(Aside, she'll
often say that sin makes our hearts 'sad and dirty' though that's not
technically one of the questions)
Q: What can change a
sinner's heart?
A: The Holy Spirit
alone
Q: What does Jesus
mean?
A: Saviour, because
he saves his people from their sin
Q:Where do you learn
to love and obey God?
A:In the Bible alone
Q:Who was the first
man God made?
A:Adam
Q:Who was the first
woman God made?
A: Eve
Q:Were Adam and Eve
good when God made them?
A: Yes, everything
God made was very good.
Q: Did Adam and Eve
continue to be good?
N: No, they sinned
by disobeying God
To be continued as
we add new questions each Wednesday at Explorers....!
Possible Memory
Verses:
Her favorites are
'The Lord is my Light' and 'The Lord is my Shepherd'
The Lord is my Light
and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the Stronghold of
my Life, of whom shall I be afraid?
The Lord is my
Shepherd, I shall not want, he makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside the still waters, he restores my soul, he leads me
in paths of righteousness for his names' sake
(clarification:
'sake', not 'sick' and we have this discussion that God puts his name
on us – just like her last name is 'Rigg' because she's in our
family -so if she goes on a tangent about 'being sick' or 'I'm
Felicity Rigg!' that's where that's coming from – completely
logical, really.) Even though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil
for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Let
your gentleness be known to everyone, the Lord is near.
In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis 1:1
Do
not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with prayer and
thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
(Hebrews
12:11)
For
the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but
later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have
been trained by it.
After
memory verses (a good one to finish with is 'Do not be anxious...' as
it goes nicely into 'presenting requests to God'), it's time to pray.
The green bug light goes off at this time. (she sometimes protests
about this, I try not to make a big deal about it, because she really
settles faster without that light in her face.) I usually ask her
'what do you want to thank God for today then?' and she will decide
who goes first. If she doesn't want to pray, that's fine too. Simon
and I will both pray.
She
gets a hug and a kiss, and her music goes on. (She's been listening
to the nutcracker for the last month or so.) The pink flower light
stays on. She can have another drink of her milk.
If
she's clingy, I'll sit on her bed and hold her hand for one more
minute. Then I say 'time to hold your belly-button' and tuck her in.
If she's really protesting, I'll sit for one more minute before
saying something like 'I need to go to the bathroom now, close your
eyes and I'll be back in a few minutes to check on you.' Or 'I'm
going to go sit in my chair in my room now, I'll be close and I'll
come back to check on you in 10 minutes.' If she's happy, I'll just
tell her I love her so much and goodnight.
Sometimes,
she'll call out one more time and I will go back in once more. She
usually just wants one more sip of milk and then she's happy to
burrow down to her pillow. Sometimes she'll want her hand held once
more and the process above applies.
Naptime is called
'A Little Rest.'
A Little Rest
(Naptime) happens right after lunch at home. She's taken upstairs,
put on the potty (important as I don't put a pull up on her at
naptime!). She only gets 1 story and 3 questions at naptime. No
prayer (unless she asks for one) , no lights on, but I do usually
play her music. If she says she's not tired, the rule is she has to
lie still with her eyes closed for 10 minutes. If I come and check
on her and she's not asleep after that (I confess, I sometimes leave
it for 15 minutes) she can get up. She's usually snoring by the time
I go check on her. It's easier in her mind though as it's only 'a
Little rest. Not a Big one.'
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