how do you spend your day?

[veronikasjinkarenko]

I was wondering how other stay at home parents spend their day with their kids?

I have a two year old son and a second on the way. My son has tons of energy and likes to have his mom by his side, so i get pretty exhausted by the end of the day .
I would love to hear what you do with your kid to get some ideas on how to fill up a day with fun activities.

[MamaOfWill]

I don't have a lot of time and also not any ideas out of the ordinary, but I thought I'll do a short list:

Books
Little Reader/ Little Math sessions
Playing with sand, water and clay.
Piants and drawing.
Trampoline
Scateboard
Swimming
Playgroups
Library
Parks
Blocks, puzzles and other toys
Preparing foods together
Singing, music playing and rimes
Ruff and tumble playing (we love rolling, wrestling and soft gymnastics)
Walks
Dansing
Reading EK facts and looking at pictures.
Playing with a blow up earth globe and big chess set.
 

...and I'm all out, hope some others have more ideas, I can do with a few.

[seastar]

I know what you mean about needing ideas! I regularly search through the forum here to see what other families are doing, then I tend to freak out thinking of how much more I could be doing if I was more organised.

We have changed our routine a little in the last few weeks so now it generally looks a little like this:

morning
Watch Tweedlewink on portable DVD player after waking
LR curriculum lesson
LM curriculum lesson
LR French lessons I have made myself & some EK lessons I downloaded from here
Point out countries/continents on inflatable globe
General free play - I try to remember to rotate the position of her toys every evening so that those I would like her to try are in view
Reading (me reading to her) in the reading corner
Social outing - meet friends with children of the same age in a cafe, playground, library etc
Might watch YBCR over lunch
TW & read another story of two before nap

afternoon
General activities that vary each day, e.g. free play, imagination games, colouring, puzzles, blocks, singing songs, reading go for a walk, meet friends etc. I am trying to incorporate maths activities into our play based on the Marshmallow Maths book. I've just started Young at Art book to get more art ideas.
Dinner followed by LR & LM curriculum & custom lessons
General play - I try to remember to play classical or foreign language music in the background during play activities
An educational DVD if we have time e.g. Sparkabilities, Leapfrog, Peter Weatherall, Baby Signing Time (her favourite) etc
TW & stories before bed

She goes to a creche two days per week, music & movement class & toddler group once a week, storytime once a month, so our routine is different those days. At the weekends, we spend more time going for walks, to the swimming pool or walking on the beach so less time for home-based EL activities.

Looking forward to hearing what other parents do (I'll try not to panic with every post)

[Wolfwind]

I don't feel like I do much when I read others' posts, but when I come to list it, it's a lot!  Maybe that's because this is my ideal; it doesn't happen every day, by any stretch of the imagination.  I'm also pregnant with an active toddler, and sometimes I just can't keep up with my plans.  Oh, well.

8- up, breakfast, dress, etc - I try to do some Montessori practical life stuff here, like teaching her to put on her socks.  I also try to read a book every time we eat (often, as you'll see).
9 - Doman word flash powerpoint (she LOVES this and will watch it several times in a row), making math equations on the floor with dots (not so favored, 1-2 equations and she's done), and reading board books
9:30 - Walk the dog and/or play in the backyard.  This is our "nature study" and also physical excellence time - she's learning to climb the ladder to the slide and we're adding a brachiation ladder this week.
10 - Snack - more practical life if possible, preparing or cleaning up after the snack
10:30 - Free play while I read my scriptures, then share a scripture with her.  I try to keep Montessori toys available and rotate weekly, but I'm not always good at that.
11 - Words again, building sentances with my Doman flash cards,  She often requests EK; I do it only on request.  I'd like to add introducing a new Montessori activity here or maybe some creative play with puppets or something...
11:30 - Music and Art time: sitting on my lap while I play my Hanon and sing along in Solfedge (she's starting to sing too) and letting her play while I sing the Solfedge, then playing with musical instruments (ideally) while I do 5-10 more minutes of practicing.  Then free drawing; art might be more organized when she's a little older.
12 - Lunch, more Montessori
12:30 - Clean something: dishes, sweeping, dusting, etc.  Usually she's a big fan of this.
1 - Naptime!  And boy, do I need it.  :-)  She is not allowed out of her room for 2 hours, whether she chooses to sleep or not, and I do my Hypnobabies work and sleep myself.  Before I was pregnant I had free time here to prepare learning activities, read, do something fun... Siiigh.
3 - Snack, Montessori again.  I'm not gaining enough weight this pregnancy (keeping up with this girl, I don't wonder why), so we eat often.
3:30 - Get out of the house!  We have storytime at the library, playgroup, and visiting my mom (homebound caring for my grandma) once a week each; I want to start swimming the other two days a week, but we often end up shopping those days.
4:30ish - Clean and prepare dinner; she usually helps a bit and then goes off for free play.  I really should do words/sentances/math again here...
5:30 - Daddy's home, yay!  I don't try to plan after that; we just do what seems fun.

[Wolfwind]

I just wanted to add something to my above post:

I love schedules.  I get bored easily at home with my daughter if I don't have a specific plan of what to do when.  But to reassure all of you who are not schedule people and find restricting a child this way cruel and unusual (I have lots of good friends like this), this is NOT set in stone.  I ask her before doing any of these things; if she says no, most of them are optional.  (Not the nap, but most of the rest.)  If she asks to go on a walk as soon as she's dressed, we go.  If she wants to stay out longer, or go back in after five minutes, we do.  This is just an idea.  And if you look, most of the things I have taking half an hour don't take that much time.  So there's lots of free time in there, even if it's not labelled "free play."

I guess maybe more EL people might be schedule people than my playgroup friends, but I find myself justifying having a schedule fairly often (I breastfed on a loose schedule too - the horror!), so I wanted to make that clear.

[veronikasjinkarenko]

Thank you so much for sharing your ideas! And i am happy that I am not the only one who gets tired I regularly take naps at noon too
I also try to have some goal during my day so not to get too bored myself, so im a fan of a scheduled day. But, I think if I would be more organised, I could get more out of our day.
Same thing with word flash cards, I couldnt keep up with the huge amounts of work to keep  up a regular daily program So now I teach based on our day; this fork is bigger then this one, we need two spoons of sugar, this is a dove and so on.  I like the LR and LM programs and think they will also help me to fill up the day time to save up the money mommy!

Our day looks like this:
6.30 we get up and have breakfast. I really need my coffee
After breakfast Daniel watches some educational program. We just got Baby Einstein so he loves to watch that now. But i think it wont keep his attention for more then two weeks or so.... This is my time to drink coffee and read my mail.
Then we usually get dressed and brush our teeth.
In the mornings I try to get some cleaning done and Daniel likes to help around.
We eat fruit at 10 and lunch at 12. In between we (read Daniel) jump on the bed and do some physical excersises. 

At noon its naptime and time for me to relax.

The afternoon is our outside time. We go to the forest to throw sticks in the water, to the playground or to the store if thats needed.
When we come home we do whatever comes to mind; play basketball, play with clay, hide in the tent and always a lot of jumping and running.I also dont hesitate to let him play by himself.
Oh yeah, i forgot a snack around 3 and dinner at 6.

PS can somebody explain the shortenings you use? Im not familiar yet with them 
Daniel goes to bed at 8, so at 7.30 I put him in the bath.

[Wolfwind]

If you are a fan of schedules, I highly recommend making a daily plan with activities for every half hour or even fifteen minute block.  Obviously you're not going to be looking at your watch and saying, "Oh, I know you're having fun coloring but now it's time to sing a song so you have to stop," but just so that when those inevitable moments come when you're sitting on the couch and your child is fussy and you just don't want to do anything, you don't have to come up with an idea AND implement it; you just look at the schedule.  My 17 month old also seems to like the consistancy; she's less difficult when I follow a plan.  I'm sure this won't work for everyone, but it might be worth a try; I love it.  (The idea comes from the book "On Becoming Toddlerwise," part of the controversial "Babywise" series; I like it taken with a dilution of common sense, but some people hate it.)

Also, while you're waiting to save up for LR, try the free powerpoint downloads here on the Brillkids site.  There are thousands, on all different topics, and they don't require the kind of time paper flash cards do.  My original plan was no screentime for my daughter, so I started making paper cards, but like you I found it too much to keep up.  Downloading a powerpoint and showing it daily for five or so days, then switching to a new one, doesn't provide the same lesson plan that LR or Doman does, but it's bettter than nothing.  It's helped me a lot.  There are powerpoints with math too, but I never found one that could do more than flash the dots; to doequations, I've been on my own.

It sounds like you're doing great things with Daniel.  Good luck with your goals!

[cokers4life]

I gave up on a schedule!   I have three under four, so my day can be all over the place.  What I found that works for me is keeping a list of activities handy.  I then choose what to do based on my kids are acting.  If they are full of energy and are about to explode, we either go outside if its nice (which it has been lately) or we jump on the bed.  I usually turn jumping on the bed into a learning activity after we say a few affirmations.  We either count our jumps in Spanish, English or Chinese.  We are up to ten in Chinese, twenty in Spanish and I am usually counting to seventy five in English. hahaha.   

We have art time.  I generally give them art supplies, and I don't usually have a planned art activity.  They like to be creative on their own without any restrictions.  I will sit side by side with them and do my own.  If what I do interests them, then I help them or show them what I am doing.   

We have Spanish time.  I show them a powerpoint that coincides with the episode they are about to watch.  We watch fifteen minutes of SALSA (kid's Spanish program).   We then get the play dollhouse after that and practice using Spanish with toys.  (I am not fluent, so I just insert key phrases and ideas introduced in the short video we just watched.)

I play memory games with them.  I made a Spanish Memory game that coincides with words from the tv series.  My son is more interested in memory games than my daughter right now.   We also play the memory linking game, too.

We always go to the gym in the mornings.  They get to go play in the kid area while Dh and I get a break to workout (After 3 kids in a row, I am ready to get my body back).  We then pick them up from the kid area and take them to the gym to practice dribbling soccer balls or basketballs.   Tuesdays, my DD takes them swimming individually. 

Flashing sessions are intermittent throughout the day.  (I am working on my own series of powerpoints that are similar to tweedlewinks, but if I had the money I would so have those videos).  Something is better than nothing right?  Lots of reading...library trips weekly.

For music, well, I show them a Solfege ppt.  I just lack musical talent, so I feel bad that I don't sing to my kids.  I am going to look for a little keyboard to pick up for the kids at a yard sale.   Again, something is better than nothing right?

We have memberships to the zoo and the children's museum so we go there a couple times a week.  My DH has a random schedule that changes from week to week day to day, so its very hard to schedule anything.   We are a very spontaneous family.   I have learned to make any moment a learning opportunity on a whim.  It causes you to be constantly engaged to look out for an opportunity.   Plus my list is pretty handy.   I would be lost without it. 

To my own disappointment, my children do not take naps.  I gave up along time ago.  They just can't settle down for a nap. Plus, if I gave them a nap, it would take forever to get them to sleep at night.   Instead, they are in bed at 7 pm every night which works for me.

Just a couple more weeks and I will have LR!  I can't wait.  I will say that flashing powerpoints is great, but I find myself all over the place.  I think LR will help me give a more focused flashing lesson twice a day. 

[veronikasjinkarenko]

wow I sure wish i was one of your guys kids weekly to the zoo and swimming!

Thank you Wolfwind for the tips. I was thinking of working with themes and a semi-scheduled day structure. For example have a theme =cats= and show him pictures of different breeds, write a story about a cat with words that he can read, language practice about cats, walk like a cat, point out where a ceartain cat bread lives on the map.... In my head i could fill a couple of days with something like that, will see how it works out in practice

[izzabanana]

After work I see to it that I spend time with my children like teach my eldest on his homework and then play with my daughter. During on weekends we always went to the mall or do any activities so I could catch things up with them.

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