Miss Mega is 1 year 1 month old
Zilla is 3 years 10 months old
One of the greatest things about our new routine is having a morning tea time with Zilla. I drink my "tea" (mint) hot but he takes his with ice cubes. Sharing a snack gives him the chance to practice serving (pouring tea, cutting bread, etc.) as well as gives us some time to chat on-on-one.
Here is our goal for a typical day schedule:
7 AM - Wake-up, eat breafast, shower/bath and dress
9 AM - School Time:
Circle Time: Read a book on the theme of the week, Bible story for the day, sing some songs, talk...
Activity time: Zilla has a set of drawers, each with an activity (cutting, writing, art), and a shelf with various things to do. Mega has some options on her shelf and often closely observes her brother's work. We also try to do a science project each day so depending on the difficulty level it is included at a time when it seems the most likely to succeed.
10 / 10:30 AM - Mega usually takes a morning nap around this time. Once she is asleep Zilla and I have Tea Time. If Mega doesn't sleep then she joins us for tea and a snack.
10:30 - Activity or Play time
12 Noon - Lunch. I am learning not to be late with lunch. Lateness makes crabby kids! Also, it helps to have a simple lunch (leftovers!) so that the precious "good mood" time of the morning isn't wasted. Mega must join us for lunch otherwise her rythm for the day gets thrown off.
1 / 1:30 PM - Zilla lays down to read/nap. Mega and I will play or hang out. Some days she gets into Zilla's toys and could care less abotu where I am or what I'm doing!!!
3/4 PM - Zilla must wake up by 4, if he fell asleep. When he doesn't sleep the goal is 1 hour of quiet rest time. Mega will often be ready for a short nap at this point in the day.
4 PM - Signing Time - There is a lull at this point in our day so it turns out to be a grea time to watch a Signing Time (or similar educational) DVD.
5 PM - Back to the kitchen - I need to get supper ready and the kids are usually ready for more activities or role play. When they are not crabby this is a wonderful / creative time of day.
6 PM - Supper
7 PM - Relax and cuddles. Zilla can choose 3 books to read before heading to bed. Mega will sometimes choose 1. At the moment they are all Berenstein Bears books so it takes at least a half hour to read them all!
8 PM Bedtime! :-) The kids get ready (PJs, potty, brush teeth, go upstairs, prayers and 1 goodnight book) for bed. We have just one room upstairs and all 4 of us sleep there, often with the kids ending up in the bed. Not an ideal arrangement but with aftershocks / earthquakes, power saving efforts and steep stairs this is the way it is for now.
Zilla will go to sleep on his own and Mega comes back down with me to fall asleep. Since the kids love to play together it is nearly impossible to get them both to fall asleep in the same room at the same time. I hope that by Christmas this year we can get a bed for them (low bunk style) so that they each have their own comfortable place to sleep. At that time I hope they will quickly learn to go to sleep in the same room at the same time.
1 comment:
Lovely to read about your day- in the post below I couldn`t believe how big Mega is getting!
I have no real structure to our day because I like to try and get out of the house for part of it- even if it is just for a walk around the neighbourhood.
Boys get up super early so Shion naps from about eight or half eight so I try to do some things with Noah then because by 9 I usually have done the morning chores. Then we head to the park, rythmic class, play in the garden or jidokan then if we have no plans to see friends.
Home and lunch then naps again for both boys from about 12. Usually read a couple of stories before nap.
Noah sleeps til 3 or so. Shion might too some days- I think he enjoys the "quiet". Then when Noah gets up we do some play together. At about 4pm I start getting dinner ready.....depending on how long he slept earlier Shion might have another nap but more often than not he just dozes during a feed for 15 mins or so and is okay until bed time.
I pop a dvd in at 4 or so for Noah and he plays and watches. Usually bring me Lego to the kitchen for me to "open" as he signs but he means pull apart.
We might skype with a friend or my mum then before we eat. Eat dinner about 5:30 then showers then play while I feed Shion again. I usually sit on the floor and play or colour with Noah while Shion feeds and then we read some stories.
Noah goes into his bed and I go into our room to feed Shion some more and get him settled. Both usually asleep by 7:30 or at least in bed.
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