Routine, what can we learn from it?

                                                                      Photo by Pascal Campion

 Routine helps both the lives of children and adults. The routine is nothing more than the repetition of useful, structured and sometimes supervised acts. Sometimes it is necessary to put order in a group, in the family and most important, to give security and limits to the child, being fundamental for its development.

Life is nothing more than small repeated and daily acts. Wake up, get up, take a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to school or work, have lunch, and more.... But amidst the frantic and demanding world we live in, is it possible to relate to the routine differently?

The routine is not bad in itself, but when it is meaningless it alienates the child and also the adult. The routine can cause the child to act mechanically, since he does not become aware of what he does, does not see sense, does not put his heart, affectivity, intelligence into it and does not internalize what he does and learns.

For the author Catherine L'Ecuyer, what makes the routine no longer mechanical is she calls ritual, which is nothing more than a humanized routine. When the child repeats his actions every day, he becomes interested and motivated not only in what he does, but in the environment around him. And this happens when this moment is shared to be shared with a loved one, thus humanizing this moment.

When the child says to you, in the middle of the bath, "Mother, look what I did!", It is at this moment that you can turn the routine into a ritual. Transforming a simple and routine moment, in a moment of discovery and sharing. The routine stops being a simple mechanical act, but the moment of great expectation and that somehow gives sense to the child and the enchanting by what it does and that wishes to know its surroundings.

See you next time,
Laura

SOURCE: L’ECUYER, C. Educar na curiosidade: Como educar num mundo frénetico e hiperexigente? Editora Planeta, 2017, 153p.