Morning Music

We are continually late. The other day I had a bad morning trying to keep the girls on task, made a few parenting mistakes, was given ATTITUDE. It was an all round unhappy failure of a morning. I finally decided enough was enough and spent 2 days really focusing HEAPS on finding alternative morning management strategies. I just can't cope with kids taking 40+ mins to put their clothes on and then still being shoeless at departure time. I wasn't born with a terribly good internal time-management clock myself, so I've been trying to dream up a BIG solution to help all of us.

There are so many good ideas online: I looked, and I thought, and I wrote down tasks and estimated times, and then I cooked myself up a revolution.

Now all that sounds simple, but along the way I also crashed a hard drive with my Powerpoint presentations for that weekend on it, lost my internet capability (including emails), and had to get Damien (my computer hero) to on his mobile from Sydney to talk me through actually opening up the computer for the first time in my life and (gasp!) unplugging and replugging a few bits of hardware to access the backup hard-drive.

Libby wanted more details about my strategy, so here you go Libby: First I worked out an order of events (there are 12 tasks to get out the door in the morning!). I then generously estimated the times they would each take, and went looking for music that matched. Of course this meant badgering the ABC shop website about putting MP3 files online, searching the entire house for music CDs, and spending half a day ripping them onto my lonely, singular hard drive. (By the way hard drive, please don't die before Damien get's back, and kindly stop giving me threatening error info when I boot-up).

Wake Up (2) Up kind of Day - Flylady
Make bed/straighten room (4)- Hello Hello Hello - The Fairies
Visit loo (3)- I want "wee oh wee oh wee oh wimerway", but am currently using drip drip drop from Bambi.
Get Dressed(5)- Do you put your hat on your head? - Playschool (x2), New Shoelaces - Playschool
Act of service (15)- A spoonfull of sugar - Mary Poppins, - The Bare Necessities - Jungle Book, - Lets get to work - Hi 5, Fly kid - fly lady, Keep on the go - Julia Donaldson, 2 min clean up - fly lady
Eat Breakfast (12)- Fruit salad - Wiggles, Peanut Butter and Jelly - Inside out, Cruncy munchy honey cakes - The wiggles, My Heavenly Father loves me - CSB, Little purple pansies - CSB, Singing in the kitchen - Playschool
Finish Cleaning Up Breakfast (5)- 2 min cleanup - Flylady
Teeth, face and sunscreen(5) - Ch…Ch…Ch… the toothbrush song - Playschool (x2), In the bathroom - Hi 5, Suncream Hi-5
Brush your hair (15)- Mirror Mirror - Hi-5, There was a princess long ago – Playschool, Respect - Aretha Franklin, Mirror Mirror (again)
Pack your bag (5)- Round 'em Up - Hi-5 (x2)
Happy dance I got you (I feel good) - James Brown

Now, obviously this is kind of ridiculous and total overkill, but I'm going for an all-out change of culture, and I need all the help I can get. Some of the times are probably too long, but they suit for now while we get used to the routine. They love the happy dance. I'm sure there will be plenty of editing and song substitution over the next few weeks.