“We are what we repeatedly do”
We are a creature of habit, good or bad. And we all know how our kids thrive on habits and structures. They like predictable patterns. They like sameness and repetition, and repetition builds not only physical but mental strength too.
The problem arises when our kids get stuck in sameness, and that’s when Co-regulation helps. We do things repeatedly, and when they get comfortable with that, we add small differences for them to notice but not get eager to get into either fight or flight mode. We don’t want to overwhelm them with the change but want to give them a taste of change, which they may or may not like, but again “Repetition” of change in Routine or Structure helps them to tackle it, to handle it.
Few activities in the structure make our Daily Rhythm. I remember, there was a time, when I could never stick to one thing. Then, I started 100-day-projects, and got into a Daily habit.
Our Daily Rhythm can be anything.
- Getting up and sleeping on time can be a rhythm,
- eating all meals at the same time can be a rhythm,
- Doing certain activities everyday can be a rhythm.
Our life is filled with rhythms, we have seasons, which bring certain festivities, and doing certain activities year by year, eating certain food is nothing but rhythm, which brings joy and happiness. This Rhythm trains our brain to trigger happiness associated with them.
Likewise, our Daily Rhythm
- instills confidence in our kids, as when they repeatedly do things they get better and confident in that and get motivated to learn or do more.
- It builds a strong connection between parent and child,
- brings order to their chaotic world,
- reduces stress and power struggle.
How we can make our Rhythm depends on our goals as well what mode of communication child prefers or understands. We started with picture boards. We struggled a lot in movement based activities, but putting a picture card in our daily schedule made it predictable and repeatedly doing it made us better with it and reduced both of ours stress. Doing a 100-day-project really helped us stick to our schedule and we made so much progress in skills and built strong connection with each other, a connection of trust, a connection of respect for each other.