I'd like to know what you mothers do with your kids to help the time pass away. After the house is (relatively) clean and it isn't that pretty out and you don't have any spare cash.
I am probably a very boring mommy because I figure it's time to teach them something! Letters, colors, numbers, songs... I guess I'd have to admit I don't just play with my kids because... well.... it's boring. I can only pretend to drink fruit soup so many times. My attention span for going around and around and around a train track is extremely limited. After the fifth rereading of the same book in a row, I'm done.
What do you do to keep their abundant energy focused on something other than destruction?
7 comments:
I will admit that I mostly ignore them and attempt to read a book. It doesn't usually work out so well. I will also confess that we've been letting S-Boogie watch too much TV lately and we've got to find a new way to limit the time. She's really into art lately, but I try to limit that to when Little Dude isn't awake because he just makes a big mess with crayons and markers. So I have no real help with this issue, unfortunately. I'll be watching the comments to see if anyone has other ideas.
I think you lost us in the second sentence. "after the house is (relatively) clean"... really?! sounds like some foreign world :)
anyway, I know you can't do the classic sending the kids out to play in the yard all day. So where can you send them? to read? to look for birds out the window? to their trainset? Playing independently is a skill just like self-feeding and potty-training, you can teach it and let theme exercise it more every day, and then you don't have to personally move that train around the track.
I'm not playful at all. My image motherhood always was and is full of teaching and reading and discovery and sightseeing, but not silliness. to each their own :)
I hear you on the lack of interest in repetition (at least the level of repetition that works for kids' brains, but fries mine).
I made lists on my cell phone of Things to Do and refer to it when I feel that tinge of openness. We tried to follow the "Idle hands..." theory and keep the kids actively engaged in world-expanding activities. Here are a few things off my cell phone now:
Fun 30 min - make a card for someone, do a science experiment (from a book), test their running / racing time then see if they can improve it...
Fun 1 hr - drop off a little something to a senior sister, using a leaf identification book see how many leaves they can identify in a 5 block radius, baseball at the park, frisbee, tennis...
Fun 3 hr - hike in Tilden, LHS, visit a new uni library, get 5 ingredients from Monterey and make something out of it, veggie art...
Fun all day - Ghiradelli square (BART there & back), MOCHA, Chabot, The Tech...
We also followed the wise advice of parents before us -- follow a schedule. Monday is library day (4 hrs eaten), Tuesday is museum day (4 hrs eaten), Wednesday is...
I second what cchrissyy says -- SSR and independent play are wonderful. For what it's worth, we worked hard with V & K when they were about your kid's ages to teach them how to do SSR on Sunday (each person in their own room reading silently for an hour -- for little kids, they did the audiocassette + book kits). We did SSR right after church & it totally changed the shape of the day for us. We *love* Sundays and everyone seems refreshed in the afternoons. For what it's worth.
Also, they might be more encouraged to do independent play if they are fully satiated with momma time. One of the quickest ways to get to that point is to do Table Time (a lot like tutoring) where you work on a particular skill (handwriting, math, music composition) at a table, sitting in a chair, fully focused on momma and the task. Some kids can only handle a 10-15 min of Table Time, some can go up to an hour. My two youngest like a good 20-30 min Table Time, then they're off to do their own projects.
If nothing else, those books about "1,000 things to do with your kids before they grow up" are phenomenally fun. I think they are in the 600-700 range at the library.
and playdates! I forgot playdates.
All of my kids have been homebodies so it was never natural for us to set up playdates, but we included it in the schedule, 2 per child per week, 4 total. Minimum. So, I knew that every M, W were a J's playdates and every T, Th were A's playdates.
Thanks, Cchirssyy and En-her-gy for some great ideas!
I think I should clarify something, though. My kids already do great at playing independently - they play very very well together and the Dude gets some "reading time" (Mama down time) every day while the Sita takes her nap.
What I was thinking of was things to do with them when I wanted to spend time with them that was fun/constructive/"world-expanding" activities, and you gave me just that! Thanks again!
ok good. then I second en-her-gy's comment about doing a weekly schedule of library day, park day, 1:1 playdate day, grocery/bank/pharmacy day, and project /field trip day. (museum, hike, cooking, art, see downtown, see the campus, ride the train).
That's a really good way to get through each day and have an active learning life. i should get back into it. Hard days went really fast when my 9-12 was filled that way and then naps would go 12-2.
I agree with cchrissyy and en-her-gy gal :). I love the "Toddler's Busy Book" - you should check it out! I think it's also really great to find toys that you like to play with too (I love playing cars, puppets, or building with marble works or lego's so we do that a lot - luckily he loves it too!). Maybe I'm just a total dork in that way...
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