With just one child last year, getting ready for work and out the door was simply a C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-E.
It wasn’t that I was dragging by any means! I teach aerobics classes most mornings before my family opens their eyes.
I am a planner too, so I would have my daughter’s bag packed the night before along with her outfit picked out. But put a toddler into the mix and things still seem to get crazy during that morning rush out the door.
I have a few tips that my husband and I discovered to help make mornings run much smoother. I am not a big fan of a lot of tv time so we wanted to come up with routines that didn’t include tv before breakfast. A HUGE solution was books on tape/cd. I am fortunate to have a collection of them from my teaching days but they are not a huge investment and there are soooooo many benefits to books on tape! We keep the books in a dresser drawer in our bedroom and the cd/cassette player right next to it. As we are getting ready, our daughter listen to books on tape and has books to accompany the audio. It keeps her interested and we get time to get ready!
Benefits of books on tape/cd:
- Models fluency, expression and intonation.
- Increases vocabulary
- Strengthens comprehension and concentration skills
- Expands the imagination
- Raises self-confidence in reading
- Improves listening skills.
- Motivating to hear the different characters, music and sound effects.
- Emphasizes reading for pleasure
- Teaches children to follow along with the “turn the page” chime
Books on tape/cd are available at local libraries. And for those of you who don’t own a cassette player, check out the one I bought at Amazon in the visual below! It has a cd and tape. My 2 1/2 year can work it on her own!