In my process of contemplating more of a schedule for our days at home, I’m trying to think of different ways to fill our time. Meals and bedtime, I am happy to say, we have down. The routines around those things usually work (though they certainly can use some tweaking, especially now as the little ones are getting older!). Its what happens around those set times that I need to work on.
Generally, if we are not going out (for preschool, outings, playdates, etc) we have "playtime" off and on all day. Basically, I say "go play!" or I pull out toys or set things up, and then hope they take to it. But all day long, this gets tedious. Sometimes, they are great at it, everyone engaged, either playing together or side by side. So awesome! Sometimes, nobody wants to do anything, they all whine and cry and annoy each other. Often, its a mix of one or two kids doing okay, one or two needing help or attention.
So I am trying to think of different ways to mix things up, things that we sometimes do but not always (or just not enough), that we can work into a more regular rotation, either daily or weekly. Here are some ideas (some I got from the book I am reading right now, some elsewhere):
"rug time" — time in the living room (or wherever) where the girls have to stay in their assigned space (rug, blanket on the floor, etc) and play with the things that are set out there (a mix of books and toys — puzzles, people, dollhouse, blocks, etc). They cannot get up and wander over to someone else’s space. We tried this the other day when they were all getting on each others nerves, and it went pretty well! I let them rotate through the three spaces, every 5-8 minutes or so. The little ones needed some help staying put but they all did it! This kind of reminds me of "centers" in school.
"room time" — time playing by themselves in their rooms. Like rug time, this is for independant/individual play. I think Emma will be fine with this but I am still trying to figure out what it will look like for Elsie and Delia (currently 22 months). Since the point is to be playing by yourself (but they share a room), I will probably have to move one of them into my room during this time? This won’t be for a LONG period of time (similar to rug time) but I like that it encourages independent play and gives them some "down time" from each other. Ideally this is done without much assistance from me…
art projects, cooking, gardening– pretty self explanitory! Generally needing my help/guidance for most of it, obviously.
directed play — time where we all play together with the same thing. Pretend/dress up, little people or animals, dolls, blocks, marble towers game, what else….? This is something I RARELY do, as I mentioned in this post awhile back. And its hard for me to figure out, honestly! What kind of play do you do WITH your kids? Ideally not the same stuff they gravitate towards by themselves (which they can/will choose to do during free play times), right?
story time — right now this happens before nap & bedtime, not sure if I want to add another time in though earlier/later in the day as well…?
cleaning/work/job time – not just routine clean up (though that will be in the schedule too!) but things like helping me scrub things, sweep, sort laundry, etc.
outside play, porch play, walks, indoor physical/gross motor activities –I need some ideas of indoor stuff to do to get them moving, other than the crazy games of chase & wrestling that goes on sometimes…
quiet time/nap — nap for the little ones, quiet time for Emma. My challenge right now is what "quiet time" looks like. Must she lie down in the dark and listen to her books on tape? For how long? Can she stay "up" and read books with the light on? What about drawing, quiet games, puzzles, etc? Must she stay in her room for all of quiet time? Please share what this looks like in your house, if you have no-longer-nappers!
TV/computer time — I am not ashamed to admit, we often do this daily, generally for 30-60 minutes or so…
What am I missing? Do you do something regularly with your kids that I haven’t covered?
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It sounds like you have it pretty much covered. I would LOVE to have more structure to my days – but with 7 month old twins I just can’t seem to stay on track!
Thanks Kristin for another great post. I struggle with these stay at home days as well. We do okay for the early morning hours but hten fall apart from the 11am-1pm times when we are usually out of the house. My kiddos are amazing if we can get outside but with the wind, rain, snow as of late that’s been challenging. One thing I did was change up the bathing schedule. My boys love the bath and this takes up a half hour easilly. Another thing I did when Jack was almost two was turn the shower on and in the master with some tub toys. He could easilly play in there for an hour, waste of water I know, but I could clean the upstairs and not worry about him drowning. Not sure of your set up but the twins may like that, alone or together and then baths can be skipped. I loved your idea about the beans and plan on trying that this summer after Sammy stops eating everything.
Walk around the block
Play in the garden
Organize the pots and pans/tins in the cupboard
Washable paints in the bathtub with regular brushes so they can ‘paint’ the walls of the shower surround
Riding trikes up and dow the street
Washing all the toys in the tub
Watering the garden
Picking flowers from around the neighborhood
Sprinkling flour or cornstarch all over the floor preffereable in an easy to clean spot-although this is a big clean-up job but has life long memories! and let them roll in it
Take a bus ride-just because
Cook-just have them mix some random ingredients that may or may not actually taste like anything but put it in the oven anyway! My girls still do this!
Very neat ideas! I really (really really really) need to start figuring this out too. Lately my little guy has just been watching a lot of DVDs. Good things but probably too much screen time.
It’s funny, I use to work in daycare and I feel like I should be better at the planning of these things and assumed I would be but I am so not doing it! It really does take conscious work.
I remember in the olden days, when our mother put on an LP of exercises……
I don’t recall being played with, but did cherish time alone in my room..
Will be interesting to see the new revised ‘schedule’….
Loved this post as well! We love the group Go Fish and the album Party like a Preschooler, because they are songs that initiate activity, like the Wheels on the Bus(do with motions), 5 Little Monkeys with jumping and bonking yourownself on the head, and the Crazy Dance with jumping! Love it and I feel like I get a work out at times, but the babies do it by themselves too.
Have you done fingerpainting in the bathtub yet? I think people do this with pudding and diapers on! I could see that lasting quite awhile.
But as far as your schedule, I love that you’ve been trying blanket time. It teaches boundaries and independant play, That’s what we need to work on. I think you have everything, girl! Great goals!
I have been reading playful parenting as I don’t feel like the most playful person ever. luckily, when I play with my 2.5 yr old son he is very directive. it may take once of me pretending to talk as a character and then he tells me “you are so and so, you say this or that” I’ve been home for 6 mos now looking for work and we do go out at least twice weekly, usually three times to activities just for him. I found a cheap music class and then we go to the zoo or aviary or children’s museum or park. he still takes long naps as long as I lay next to him (personally I love naps though mine are never as long as his, I get a lot of reading done:).
our schedule is mostly -
get up (he sleeps late because we are both night owls)
putz around getting ready for the day and playing he may also catch super why or something on tv. he’s not a big breakfast eater so maybe 2 hours after he is up he’ll want a snack.
if going out be out of the house by 10ish.
lunch by 1ish and maybe a video if we got back from somewhere to settle down. he has recently started turning the tv off after 5-10 minutes so it adds up to little, probably more than others but it is what it is.
nap by 2
get up and play with trains (he loves his trains)
dinner
play with a set item – sand box (I made a little one for him in the house) or rice box (this has animals in it the sand has cars and such) or do stickers/paint/art, musical instruments etc…try to do something different everyday. I’ve packed his toys all away and we just take out what we are playing with. he’s big into imagination games now – animals/barn, cars/trains, mickey/minnie and the gang in sand etc.
a friend got him some blocks the other day at a garage sale and man he loves them.
and we read. alot! probably 30-60 min a day of reading. whenever he wants to sit in my lap he brings over a book. and at nap and bed time depending on how tired we are it can be up to 10 books. he will sit and want to talk about everythign in the book as well as hear the story. when I go back to work we’ll have to work out a new schedule.