Bathtime (& learning)

My daughter (she is 5) started Kindergarten this year, and we were having some troubles at the end of the day with homework, and finding time to reflect on her day at school.

I didn't want to overwhelm her by bringing her home, and getting her stuck into her

homework, leaving no time to be a 'kid'. So I came up with a solution that suits the both of us.

When she comes home of an afternoon, that is her time to go play with her friends, and do whatever kids do. That is my time to do whatever I have to do, washing, start dinner, etc, all those fun things that we love doing! Dinnertime for us is between 5-5.30pm, so that's her time to come in, get washed up and eat dinner. Now that daylight savings has ended, it is too dark for her to be going back outside after dinner (which she isn't real happy about!), so now it's into the tub, to get washed, but also to reflect on her day.

I bought a little step to sit on in the bathroom next to the bath so I am eye level with her, and can speak to her normally. Also I have bought some bathtime letters A-Z and numbers 1-10 that are scrambled around all sides of the bath. After asking about her day and what she did, we move onto a little bit of revision I guess you could say. Nothing too much so it's like she's at school again. But simple things, simple words, like cat, dog, etc that she can use the letters to make the word. Sometimes she gets annoyed with it all so we stop. But most of the time she spells out what I ask, asking for help along the way, counts as far as she can with the numbers, and it's because I've asked her to 'show' me what she can do, rather then telling her what she 'has' to do.

A little bit of time put aside makes all the difference. She loves showing me what she can do and spell. Whether it's 10 minutes or 30 minutes (which is usually the case with her, she is a water baby!) the time spent with them, bonding with them and helping them is so good for both of us.

After bathtime, it's time to sit down and relax for 20 minutes before mum gets up to do the dishes (fun lol) and reading her homework sheet (if she has one). Once I'm sure she'll be right with it, she sits at her little table doing her homework while I do the dishes. If she needs help, I come out and give it to her. Not only is this using the best of the time we have, we get everything done, and we spend time together.

Now of course if you have a bigger family, more kids, partner, etc, it would be tough to do that, but as a single mum, this really works for us. It's not too pushy, but not too lenient either.