Family of the week with Andee
We’re a family of three: it’s me, my husband Ben and my five-year-old daughter, Alexandra, better known as “Alex”. We live in a suburban area of Montreal, Canada. We’re working parents; my husband is a mechanical engineer and I’m a marketing director.
Before entering into the world of marketing and communications, I studied to be an elementary school teacher. During my internships, I learned how kids react well to structure and being informed what the daily schedule is.
Before entering into the world of marketing and communications, I studied to be an elementary school teacher. During my internships, I learned how kids react well to structure and being informed what the daily schedule is. Actually, it’s something adults crave as well; imagine going into a meeting not knowing the upcoming topics of conversation or what’s expected, and contrast that with the experience of going into a meeting with a set agenda, and timeline for how long each topic will be discussed. Both kids and grown-ups want to go through their days being prepared for their experiences and knowing what its expected of them and when I saw the Octopus watch, I thought it was the ideal teaching tool to help our daughter with her daily routine.
Each weekday I wake up first and start the process of getting everyone ready. I shuffle Alex out of bed, coax her to go to the bathroom, wash up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and brush teeth. I’m in charge of the first part of the morning and my husband takes over once Alex is at the breakfast table. At the age of five, Alex is focused on being playful; she doesn’t fully understand that Mommy and Daddy are in a hurry to get things done in the morning. Instead, she wants to hide, or play, and gets distracted with toys, books, or things she finds around the house. Moreover, since up until now daycare had no real “start time” so she does not understand what “being late” is. Inevitably, Alex would stop the routine to play or read a book or dawdle at every step. The words “stay on task”, “what’s your task?” and “what’s your next task?” are repeated endlessly, and it’s a constant struggle. We tried rewards, punishments, and even turned the morning routine into “The Morning Time Game-Show” (with an imaginary studio audience) to try to get her to transition from task to task at a reasonable pace. These days we play children’s music on our tablet and let Alex know that “at the end of this song, you should be finishing your task”. We try to set goals and boundaries and are seemingly most effective when we do it in a fun way, but it’s been a major stress resulting in both Ben and myself coming to work late on too many occasions. We’re proud to teach Alex independence and we want her to develop good habits, but it’s been hard. I’ve told my coworkers that if they see I’ve come to work with no makeup on, it’s because my own getting ready process got sacrificed to keep Alex on track.
In the early evenings when we all return home, it’s more leisurely, but there are still tasks to be done such as practicing piano, putting toys away, putting clothes in the hamper, and getting ready for bed and tucked in at a decent hour. We tend to give verbal cues of when playtime is coming to an end and when bedtime is coming, but again, reminders turn into nagging or threatening negative consequences for procrastinating. We used to have a bedtime routine of three books and a song before lights out, but by the time we get Alex into bed, we often end up cutting out the reading so that she can get a full night’s sleep. That’s definitely not what we want.
We hope that Alex will find Octopus to be both a great learning tool and a cherished childhood memory…”Mom, remember that cool watch you got me when I was five, that showed me my schedule?”
The Octopus watch can not come soon enough for us, especially since Alex is starting kindergarten in a few weeks and school starts at 7:57AM! (Ridiculous time, I know.) This means, not only will we have to prepare our daughter for a more structured and hopefully more scholarly day, but we have to get her to school half an hour earlier than what was normal for the past four years. As parents, we want to cut down the nagging and have Alex take ownership of her daily tasks. We want to teach her what a schedule is, how to transition from task to task, and have her understand what’s expected of her. With a dual income family, time at home all together is precious. We don’t want to waste that time arguing or nagging; we want it to be fun and harmonious. We hope that Alex will find Octopus to be both a great learning tool and a cherished childhood memory…”Mom, remember that cool watch you got me when I was five, that showed me my schedule?”
I truly can not wait for our Octopus watch to come and have us program it together, as a family. I’m proud to have supported this ingenious new product that I anticipate will revolutionize daily planning and early childhood education for countless families around the globe.
