Chasing Cheerios

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Our Daily Schedule

Since a couple of people have asked about our daily schedule, I decided to write a post about in case anyone else is interested :) We are currently in a state of transition with our schedule, and it is changing daily. O and I used to sleep until around 9 am, and she went to sleep around 9:30, but we are waking up earlier (7:30), and she's going to sleep earlier (8:30) starting yesterday. Elliott's is on a new schedule at work, so we are all trying to go to bed earlier :)



So...we start our day with getting dressed, brushing teeth, doing a little light cleaning downstairs (the bedrooms and laundry room are downstairs, and the den and kitchen which is really just one big room are upstairs). Then we go upstairs for breakfast. Its amazing how long this all takes. This morning we finally finished breakfast around 9am. O plays with her toys while I fix breakfast. She primarily has wooden (puzzles and cutting food) and open ended toys (ex. bilibo, felt board, and rainbow stacker) and montessori type materials, but she does have a couple of plastic toys (Mr. Potato Head and dollhouses that a friend just gave her). I put her toys in a toy rotation because we realized early on that she plays better when she doesn't have "too much stuff" (whenever there's is clutter O always says "too much stuff. clean up!") The problem with the toy rotation is that once the toys are gone, I forget about them, and they often don't come out of the closet for months and months :)



After breakfast we either go play on the beach, read books, or play with her toys. Occasionally, we'll do a few montessori activities. It really just depends on what she wants to do. I was surprised that she hasn't wanted to go on the beach lately, but tomorrow I'm going to insist that we go out. I know she'll love it once we get out there. I like to take morning walks with her, but its usually too hot at this time of year. We eat lunch around 11:30 or 12:00, and then she naps for about an hour and a half to 2 hours. This is when I blog and clean the house. When she wakes up, we usually read books for about 45 minutes to an hour. Reading books is her absolute favorite thing to do, and I love to read to her. Then we do a little housework (washing and folding clothes, etc).


After that we go back upstairs and have fun! Today she kept asking for "more activteees" and "more games!" She likes to toddler activity bags a lot, and I'm planning on making more soon. I am a little concerned that she's getting too dependent on me for entertainment, so I'm trying to make sure she has plenty of independent play time each day (and the Montessori work helps with this a lot, since most of it is independent work). She loves playing in her rice pit out on the screened porch, but its usually too hot to go out there in the afternoon. She really hasn't shown much interest in her Montessori work lately, and I think that is because its out on the shelf all of the time. I need to have a place where I can limit her access to it, so it will be more appealing to her. Elliott and I are planning on building a shelf (hopefully this weekend) that will be the Montessori shelf. It will have casters so I can turn it around during "school time," and then turn it to the wall when we are just hanging out and playing. I think our Montessori time will go MUCH better after we have this in place. I'll post pictures once I have it all set up. I'm VERY excited about this, and I can't wait to be more organized.



Back to the schedule...O has her afternoon snack around 4 or 5, and then we try to go outside and work in the garden and check the mail. If its not too hot, we'll play for a while. Yesterday, she had a great time chasing me and riding her tricycle around the yard. Once we have a fence, we'll spend a lot more time in the yard (it makes me nervous for her to be so close to the lake, and I can't take my eyes off of her for even a second).



We eat supper around 7ish, and then she plays or reads books with dada for a while. Then its time for a bath (or a quick shower with mommy) and bed.

I have a list of activities (baking, arts and crafts, etc) that I want to eventually do with O, and I loosely plan to do 1 or 2 things each day. I LOVE reading toddler/preschool activity books and searching for ideas on different blogs. Google reader makes it so easy to read blogs quickly and star the items that I want to go back to, so it has helped me get much more organized. Thanks for the comments, and let me know if anyone has any questions. I've got to go steam the kitchen floor now :)

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your schedule, it's always interesting to hear how other people spend their days. I'm looking forward to seeing your Montessori shelf. I find that having a special place and time for the Montessori materials gives them a different appeal that the other toys don't have.

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  2. Thanks for posting this! I've been curious since finding your blog. We're trying to get into a routine and was curious what yours looked like with all your activities you fit in!

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  3. Quick question: do you ever do play-dates or classes? Where do you fit that in?

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  4. your schedule looks great! your so lucky to have the beach right in your back yard what fun!

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  5. Katie- We have storytime at the library on Wednesday mornings,and we usually go to the playground and to the grocery store after that. We occasionally have playdates with our neighbor's great-grandaughter when she is in town. Unfortunately, we don't have any kids who live near us, so O isn't around other kids as often as I would like. We do go to my mom's house a lot, and she spends lots of time playing with her older cousin. Thanks for the comments!

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  6. I am in the process of charting out activities and things to do with my girl. Would you mind sharing the books and blogs that you refer to for toddler activities.
    Thanks in advance,

    Prerna

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  7. ps- Most of the blogs that I get ideas from are linked in my sidebar, but a few are not. I really need to update things! I get lots of ideas from the following blogs: A Bit of This and That, Montessori Mama, Montessori Free Fall, One Little, Two Little, Teaching Tiny Tots, The Crafty Crow, Let's Explore, Megret, and Shannon Sharings. There are more, but those are the primary ones that I pull from. I usually check out activity books from the library, and I just check out whatever they have. Right now I'm reading the 2,00o Best games and activities by Susan Kettmann. I'm not impressed with the activities for babies and toddlers, but she has some good ideas for ages 3 and up (which are adaptable or suitable for O's age). I also love Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June Oberlander. Its a wonderful resource. Good luck, and if I think of any more books I'll let you know!

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  8. Thanks Melissa for all those suggestions.

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