Yesterday I said I would share today what we do with our breakfast routine in our bustling house of 10 (going on 11). The kids are required to be up at 8 am, make their beds, take care of their morning hygiene and then they are on their own for breakfast. We have a "breakfast station" in the kitchen. In the top cabinet, we keep a stock of bagels, English muffins, oatmeal, grits, and peanut butter. On the counter under the cabinet is the toaster, so they can make any toasted foods at this station. (As a rule, we have found that Pop Tarts and other convenience foods packed full of corn syrup and sugars create behavior problems in our house, so we try to avoid them.)
There is a cabinet in the dining room that holds the cereals and granola items. Other items, such as the raw milk and eggs are in the fridge for use as needed. While we eat together, each child chooses what he will eat, prepares it himself, (except for the younger ones who get help from older siblings), and then all are required to clean up any messes they made, leaving the table nice and clean for lunchtime later in the day. This is much easier than planning meals for breakfast as everyone has their own favorites and can learn the responsibility of feeding themselves.
The children who have been assigned loading and unloading the dishwasher for the month must be sure that clean dishes are put away and the dishwasher has been reloaded and started before school starts at 9 am.
I like this system for a couple of reasons. First, I have free time in the morning to have breakfast with my husband and go over the schedule and activities for the day, and secondly, the children learn to take responsibility to get themselves up, feed and clean up after themselves.
I prepare lunch (based on our schedule posted yesterday) and dinner (based on our Once a Month Cooking Menu which will be posted later). I will also tell you about our chore system in a later post. As our friend from the 100 acre wood would say, Tata for now! :)
*sigh* Okay. I think I am a control freak. When I let my kids get their own food they eat 3 crates of strawberries (which is all we'd have in the house). Or, they'd make an entire bagel and then eat 1/4 of it. Also, I soak all my grain foods (oatmeal, rice, etc). So the oatmeal thing, I guess I could give up the soaking?? But I'd keep thinking "unhealthy!" and stress out about it. The milk is fine. We drink raw milk and they are allowed as much as they want for breakfast and dinner. I am considering the OAMC for muffins/breakfast foods so that they can get whatever they want. I don't know how to let go! I freaked out last week because I bought grapes, and then told them they could go get some and I walked into the kitchen 20 minutes later and every grape was GONE. The next day they did that with strawberries!! LOL. I shouldn't complain, but I didn't have any healthy snacks left for my 15mo! Whats a mother to do??!
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