Now the Autumn is here, a new rhythm begins to suit the season. When the children get in from school, they change straight into warm pyjamas. Changing out of their uniform is their way of signalling that the busy school day is over and their bodies and minds can relax. They settle straight into free play, either together, or apart.
Quite often, all Miss K wants to do is settle down under cosy quilts and read. This is how she relaxes.
I find Little L physically 'needs' to play to release any stresses from the school day. If she doesn't have enough opportunities for play worked into her day, she will struggle falling to sleep at night.
Watching TV as an after school activity has never been been something we've done. Here, we don't have the murmur of the television or radio in the late afternoon/early evening, we just have quiet, a hush falls over the house. It feels simple and relaxing and calming to us. It's our 'normal', our rhythm. I draw the curtains when it's twilight, our evening is beginning. The children can hear the dishes clinking from the kitchen, dinner will be ready shortly and then it will be bath and bed.
With the nights drawing in even further, soon it will be time to start lighting a beeswax candle to cast a warm glow around the living room. Perhaps Little L will put her toys aside and follow her sister, burrowing under quilts and blankets and hibernate as the season dictates.
A slightly new rhythm will have begun as the season draws on.
