I Have Every Faith In You

You may be experiencing a lot of change right now and your days and weeks may feel quite different to your usual rhythm. Perhaps you are navigating changes to the way you work, arrange childcare, socialise, shop and cook. These aren’t easy things to adjust to and it will take some time to figure out a rhythm that works for you. The beautiful thing about rhythm is that it is flexible and as one thing changes, you can adjust your rhythm to welcome and support that change for everyone in your home. I know that you are already an expert at navigating change – after all, no week with a young child looks that same as the week before. I have every faith in you that you already have all the problem solving skills to navigate an upheaval, or a sudden change, even if you haven’t experienced it in this way before.

Rhythm Is The Ebb and Flow Of Life

Rhythm doesn’t mean creating a new lifestyle that feels far away from the one you have. It doesn’t mean sticking to a schedule, doing the same thing each day. Rhythm means grounding yourself with the ebb and flow of life. Some weeks will be energetic and some weeks will feel calmer and slower. Rhythm is recognising the balance between busy days and slow days, night and day, a week passing by, cold months and warm months, another year passing, bringing us once again to an annual celebration or an annual sight in nature. Rhythm is also accepting the messy parts. There’s no avoiding the messy parts of the day, but we are much more able to cope with them when some parts of the day anchor us in place.

Feeling Anchored By The Ordinary Moments

Our understanding of time is more complex than children’s. We have created ways of recording and noticing time and these ways aren’t always the same ways that children will understand time. Children’s understanding of time is based on their experiences. ‘I know it’s night time because I’m getting changed into my pajamas’, ‘I know it’s lunch time because I can see my parent in the kitchen’. The things that matter to children are how they wake up, how their adults communicate with them, their meal times, their play time, their bath time… the familiarity of everyday life. We call these things anchors because they are the moments that anchor all of the family into a moment of normality, rhythm and gratitude.

What Matters Most Is How a Child Feels

Children aren’t concerned with time, they don’t care what month it is, they are concerned with feeling secure. They want to know what’s happening in their lives. They want to wake up and feel comfortable with the day ahead. If your circumstances are currently changing from day to day then it’s helpful for your child to have the tools so that they can understand how they day will look and feel ahead. We can help them to understand their rhythm by making something of the things that do happen each day, such as waking up, meal times, bath time, bed time, and possibly certain activities or free play. Our Seasonal Rhythm follows a gentle rhythm of Story Time, Songs, Nature Walks, Reflection Activity and Purposeful Work. These are some of the gentle activities that can flow between our anchors.

For Community Reflection

• What are the anchors in your day that take place no matter what? Can you make a list of them?
• Are there any simple ways that you can bring some kindness to those anchors? Perhaps a song, a simple ritual such as a candle, a hug or saying something you are grateful for?
• Choose one anchor and one thing you wish to do at that anchor. Here are a few examples:

When your child wakes you could a gentle song to sing,

At meal times light a candle, sing a song or say something you are thankful for,

At bedtime tell your child something you enjoyed about the day, and a reason you are grateful for them.

Please do comment and tell me a way that you hope to notice and create anchors in your day that will support you and your child.

With Warm Wishes,

Jill xx