Practical ideas for Attention Challenge

These are the times that we have where we are 100% devoted to each other in our day.  And this is off the top of my head in five seconds - I am due out the door in two minutes.

1) wake up time.  We have a time of talking about our good night sleep and kisses and cuddles before we get up and do brekky and getting dressed

2) mid morning snack kinda time.  Often we are out and about at this time of day, but we do nature trails, see what we can see from the bus window etc

3) School time, a half hour each day where she is learning and I am showing her things.  We practise all sorts

4) teatime.  We eat together.  sometimes we watch telly at the same time, but we are together and we chat more than watch on those occasions when it is on.

5)bedtime.  story, pray, cuddles, plans for tomorrow are discussed. 

It isnt as structured as it sounds, but it does seem to fall into that pattern.  There are many times we are already spending with our children and it is recognising that this is a time when I can not think of the other things for a few minutes and just relax and enjoy my childs personality for a minute.  Those other things will still be there, but nothing will change with them in the meantime.  Sometimes if i have a consuming thought that refuses to go i talk about it with my daughter.  Not specifically, but we make light of it slightly and that helps me feel better about it.  And sometimes talking it over with her is just the tonic i need to solve the issue or reduce it.

If you have more than one child it may work best to spend 'family time' each day, and then have individual time once a week where you have a quality time doing something you btoh enjoy, be it fishing, some kind of craft or sport, or even just sitting down with a good book or movie and enjoying some snuggle time.  Not having that situation yet i dont know how I would tackel it, but I like to think that I would find a way to have a special thing going with each child that was personal to them and me. 

For those taking on the challenge why not also add your top tips and times

Peace
EF.x