Okay...what did I do?
Mothers of toddlers, I'm sure you've heard about all the benefits of having a schedule for your little one. Seriously, there are literally hundreds of articles, books, studies, opinions, etc. that you can find about how schedules improve behavior and make everyone's life easier. For me there was just one problem...
practically speaking I cannot do the same thing day after day in the same way
at the same time!
I mean, whose life actually can be that way? Some days involve shopping, others involve trips to the library, others involve staying at home getting some cleaning done. Also, Alexa, being 2, is unpredictable from one day to the next. Last week she was a nightmare, this week she's like a totally different child. And some days she sleeps until 9am (rarely, but it happens), and other days she's up at 6:30am, which totally changes our plans for the morning. So sometimes breakfast is at 7am and sometimes it's at 9:30. And sometimes I need her to have nap at 12:00 and sometimes it can't happen until 2:30 (thank you 11:00 church)...you get the idea!
So, when I was reading all these articles, books, and studies, I'm thinking "uhhh, so how do I make a schedule for such an unpredictable creature?" It was very discouraging. After a while the thought occurred to me that "obviously, you need to have events and times in your schedule that can be moved around."
And so it became very clear what I needed to do: MAGNETS!
(poor lighting in the kitchen means you need to ignore the graininess of the pictures)
Everything from the times to each event to the day of the week and even the sun in the corner (I have varying weather pictures depending on what it looks like outside) are magnetic and rearranged daily. It's a great activity to do each morning with my 2-year old and a great resource for both of us to make sure we're not spending too much time in front of the TV or computer and that we're getting adequate amounts of play and work time each day.
Overall this project took me a few evenings, a couple hours at Kinko's, and about $15 for the laminating. Schedule events include the following items:
Blank Sheets for Writing in Special or Unpredictable Events
Bath Time Bedtime
Room Time Church
TV Time x2 Swimming
James Time Potty Time x2
Playtime Quiet Time
Lunch Soccer
Shopping Dance
Dinner Crafts
Family Time Make Lunch
Breakfast Make Dinner
Chores Friends
Snack x2 Park
Reading Outside
Clean-Up Mom Time
Naptime Library
Daddy Time
How exciting that we have this great tool and that it can grow with her. Here is a list (w/ links) to the Dingbat Fonts I used for the pictures (I also recently used them for a potty training chart I made, so I think they will continue to be very useful):
Once again, yay for me (and you're welcome)! To see more things I plan on do-doing this summer, check out my list!
2 comments:
Way to go Rachel! This is a fun idea. And it will encourage her to be more involved or aware and a great teaching tool.
That is really cool! Walt has a pretty strict schedule and I sometimes really struggle with arranging my time around his nap...I'm glad you found something that works for you!
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