Friday, February 01, 2008

The Breakfast Club

One of the things we've been talking about lately is being a little more intentional in making use of our time at home. We all have good if vague intentions, though they often don't amount to much, and sometimes at the end of the day or the end of the week we end up with guilt or regrets about what we didn't get around to. This has been a chronic, serious problem for all of us.

During one of our informal family meetings at a local café, the kids and I talked about a shockingly novel experiment. The idea was that I would prepare a nutritious breakfast for the family, and they'd get out of bed at the appointed time and come to the table where we actually sit down together and eat it. And furthermore we'd take the opportunity to plan out our day, if we wanted, discussing any fixed activities, deciding on optional out-of-home plans, and putting in dibs on parental time and energy.

So we've been trying it. They're calling it Breakfast Club, a harkening back to the days when they were younger and had Clubs for everything. We've only been at it a few days and so far we've managed to complete an elusive haircut, make adjustments to story time, get to the gym, check out an Aikido class, and fit in more math than we've managed for a long time. And I think we're eating better too!

5 comments:

  1. The table looks much more elegant, and the meetings sound much more pleasant than the original Breakfast Club!

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  2. What a wonderful idea! A lot of the unschoolers I know (my family included) are such night owls that breakfast is scattered and random. A plan-your-day brunch just might be in our future!

    Starcat

    P.S. I've been reading your blog for over a year now and find it incredibly inspiring. What a wonderful family you have!

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  3. Great idea! I think in our house it would have to be called Brunch Club, or even Lunch Club, as the kids sleep in rather late. And the oldest would never be there because he lives in a parallel universe these days in which night and day are interchangeable!!!

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  4. I can SO relate! And what a great idea!

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  5. I am definately "stealing" this idea! We're good about sitting down at dinner time, but I love the breakfast planning committee combo. Thanks!

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