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What is your day like with your toddler (2 year olds specifically)? When do they wake up, go to bed, take naps, eat meals, what type of activities do you do during the day?
I ask all this as we are in the midst of the "terrible twos" and I think having a more consistent schedule would really help. But I'm not sure what to aim for.
I am going to cross post this in the Baby Lounge too, since the traffic is higher over there.
Thanks!
Hi - Here's our schedule, more or less:
7:30-8:30 Wake up
8:30 eat breakfast
9:00-11:00 play, park, read, etc. (somedays has a 10/10:30 snack)
11:30-12:00 eat lunch
12:30-3:30 nap (this length is fairly recent and I'm LOVING it)
3:30-5:30 read, craft, sing etc.
4:00 snack
5:30-6:30 Dad's home! They play.
6:30-7 Dinner
7-8 bath
8:30 bed
Just a note, if I'm going to go out, I generally do in the morning; he seems to do better. Also, if I want him to play independently, I do it in the morning, because he definately isn't willing to do that in the afternoon - he really wants a lot of attention. Generally, we either meet with other moms and kids/and or go to the park 3 out of 5 days. When we stay at home, we do crafts and a lot of reading. As an example, today I focused on Golidlocks and the Three Bears. I read it twice (plus other books he picked out). We played with the characters on the felt board. "He" made a paper bag bear puppet. He colored coloring pages from the book. We practiced big, medium, little. I find that if I'm going to be home with him all day, esp. on days like today - raining, I need to be really focused and prepared or we both get crabby.
HTH,
You probably don't want to model after us. I think we have a fairly atypical schedule, but here's what generally happens.
7:00 DS wakes up
7:00 - 7:30 Watch TV
7:30 - 8:00 Breakfast
8:00 - 9:00 Play
9:00 - 9:30 Watch TV/DVD while I shower
9:30 - 12:00 Play (or outside activity - library, park, playdate)
12:00 - 12:30 Lunch
12:30 - 3:00 Play/Read/Craft (occasionally run errands)
3:00 - 6:00 Nap
6:00 - 6:30 Independent Play or Watch TV/DVD while I make dinner
6:30 - 7:30 Dinner
7:30 - 9:30 Play/Read
9:30 - Bed
On nights when DS gets a bath, it's generally around 8:00 or 8:30.
I don't give scheduled snacks anymore. Sometimes DS doesn't have a snack. Sometimes he wants something and I generally let him have a snack. He drinks milk and water throughout the day.
6.30 wake up (sometimes 5.45, yuk!) Watch Elmo, having cup of milk
7.00 Walk Dog (Em in stroller)
8.00 Breakfast
9.00 Playgroup 3 times a week, or go shopping. If staying at home. playdoh coloring etc
10.30 Snack
12-2pm Nap
2.00 Lunch
Afternoons, read, play, Take Dog to the park around 4, Kick ball for dog and Em goes on the slide.
5.00 Barney
5.30 Dinner
6.00 Hop on bed with Dad!
6.30 Bath, pjs, stories
7.15 Bed......up for pee pees, I'm called in and out for various reasons!
She likes to take a book to bed and 'reads' and chatters
8.00 Sleep
I tried putting her to bed later but it takes the same amount of time to go to sleep and she's more tired. If She's tired she is more grouchy and terrible 2ish. I have managed to distract her most of the time when a tantrum is coming, she def needs good sleep and naps. I think she does like consistency and knowing what's coming.
HTH a bit.
Here's our schedule:
6 am - wake up (sometimes as early as 5 am, sometimes as late at 7 am)
6 am - ? breakfast (usually oj and pancakes or waffles - he likes to graze on them for a while).
(we leave house at 7:45 Tue-Fri to go to in-home daycare)
9 am/10 am morning snack
11:30ish lunch
1-2:30 (daycare) or 1-3/4 (home) nap
(pick up from daycare 2:30-3:30 pm)
3 pm/4 pm afternoon snack
5/5:30 pm dinner
sometimes a pre-bedtime snack if he's hungry
8 pm - bedtime (sometimes earlier if he got up too early and didn't get a long enough nap)
Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02
The schedule is the same at daycare or home
8:00 - 8:30 wake up
8:45-9:15 breakfast
9:15 - 11:30 play, color, outside, read, friends (1 snack in there)
11:30-12:15 lunch
12:30 - 3 - nap
3 - snack (pick up from babysitter)
3-5:30 play, trip, shopping etc
5:30 dinner
6:45 dad home
7:15 bath
8:00 bed
I think you're absolutely right that a consistent schedule will help. Consistency is so critical--I learned that as a teacher before becoming a parent!
That said, here's our typical schedule. On the weekends sometimes it's different:
7-8 AM wake up
8-9:30/10 eat breakfast, watch TV, play, get dressed
10-12 outing of some kind: class, playdate, etc.
12:30 lunchtime
1-1:30 read books, wind down for nap
1:30-2 to 3:30/4:30 naptime
4--6 afternoon varies. sometimes we just stay at home and play (lately we do stay at home a lot b/c it is SO COLD), sometimes we go over to a friend's/have a friend over or go on an errand, we might take another outing...in nice weather we ALWAYS go to the park in the afternoon; it is unheard of for us to just be at home, but unfortunately in the winter it's just not park weather!
6-ish dinner, sometimes by herself, sometimes we eat as a family, dep. what time DH gets home
6:30-7 bathtime
7:30 watch Barney, brush teeth, put on PJs, read more books, wind down for bed
8-8:30 bedtime!
Holly,
GREAT activites, I love all the concepts you are incorporating!!! Please share more about your activites and planning process. What you are doing is my goal but I never get that organized.
Thanks!
Carrie
I tell my husband I feel sometimes like I spend an hour preparing an activity that takes 5 minutes. LOL. I use a lot of websites. My favorites are http://members.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html, http://www.dltk-kids.com/, and http://www.first-school.ws/. I usually pick a book or holiday to focus on. I usually plan on the weekends for the next week, although honestly I skip about a week a month because of lack of time. Generally, I start with very little idea of what I'm doing and the ideas sort of snowball. For instance, this week I was going to do Three Little Pigs (then i realized it was Chinese New year so it got put off).
At first, I found the idea, (I think on DLTK) to make the three houses. Then I couldn't find anything else I wanted, so I shelved it. Then, I saw how to make a piggy bank on one of the sites, so I printed that out. Then, I thought of making pigs in a blanket. And then found the idea to cut out pigs and let DS paint them with brown paint or pudding (o.k. I jsut thought of the pudding as I was typing this - and maybe instead of paper pigs I could make some sort of edible pig - what goes well with chocolate pudding and is pink? cookies with food coloring? pigs?) to get them dirty. So, my original Three Litlle Pigs went from the story to a more broad pigs idea because I couldn't really come up with enough enough specific sotry ideas. And really, I look on the internet and adapt a lot of things like I just did while I was typing this.
And that's it. HTH,
Well I have a 2.5 year old and a 15 month old so my days are long (brutal)..LOL jk and joyous.. So its a lot to do during the day and I am really tired and on my feet. At night I get everything ready for the next day, get clothes laid out and cups in the fridge.
so it goes like this.
6am wake up
7am breakfast useually eggs/banana
8am free play
9am watch tv
10am snack
10:30am nap
1pm lunch(diaper for baby)
2pm outside time
3pm bath time(mon-wed-fri) if not then free play/crafts/music...varies.
4pm dinner
the evening we don't keep a schedual dad's home he'll play with the kids..we'll go out side etc.
7pm snack-teeth brush diaper etc
8pm bedtime.
sometimes it varies because if my son doesn't take his nap he'll go at 7pm or so. But that's pretty much how our days are...meals useually take an hour so that's always nice..hehehe.