The magic duo of parenting

Sometimes my kid's needs become crystal clear.  Earlier this week (after a few late nights) I had one of those moments.  It isn't deep but it makes SUCH a difference to my children.

They need the magic duo - food and sleep.  After a few babies I worked out that most babies' issues are related to the magic duo.  What I hadn't reflected on until recently is that this doesn't stop when kids get older - I'm still pursuing the same goals!

They need good food that fills them up (actually, they need to eat the food that is given to them that fills them up - but my fussy eaters could take up another whole, long depressing post).

And they need a good amount of sleep.  My seven year old will not sleep in.  He always wakes early.  So if he goes to bed at 10 he will only get 8 hours sleep when he needs at least 10 hours to be civilised.   The amount of crying in a given day is directly related to the amount of sleep that my children have had.  It makes us a little obsessive about bedtimes.  It is our sanity at stake.

When people have asked what we did to get our son into a selective school I laugh and just say that we fed him good food and made him go to bed on time.  I always make a joke of it, but I actually think there is a truth to it.  There is so much evidence of a relationship between poor concentration and learning for kids who are eating the wrong types of food.

And I teach so many yawning kids each day at school that I know they can't be able to concentrate on what they are learning.  I had six kindy kids sound asleep in school assembly a few weeks ago - admittedly it was the end of the school day, but even still, on other days the teacher might be attempting to teach them something (we do get a lot of classes in the library last thing in the school day - when the teachers are all a bit over it).

Food and sleep.  Seems easy, but wow - does it not fill up a lot of our time?