Sticking to a schedule: I'm running out of ideas

Do you have a nice park around? There is a great park near me with a covered playground (with that awesome rubber flooring)and there are trails to walk, a spring, and a dog park. A park of this level can provide hours of entertainment for ages of both your children.

In the summer, when I don't work (teacher), I take my 1yo there daily and she never tires of it.

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Rachel, you may have more a schedule already than you think, write down the day's events a few days in a row and then you might find patterns and more a flow than its seems ('course you might not, LOL.)

I generally found the more structure I offered in the morning the more I could leave my boys to themselves a bit in the afternoon. This is not so much the case with my DD. There are kids who the more structure and planned activities they get, the more they want. In a way schedules can backfire since you sometimes have no wiggle room.

The days sure do get long don't they? I find afternoons are good for music or cooking. You DD is prolly getting close to being old enough to play alone with dolls and stuffed animals more which will be nice.

GL

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For a two year old I would suggest having her be your "helper" for a certain amount of time each day. You know, getting various chores doen around the house. She can help with getting all the socks into a pile from the laundry while you fold the other stuff. She can hold the dust pan after you sweep, stack all the cups from the dishwasher or place all the spoons into the drawer. All of this with your help/supervision of course. I would also try music time. Make an instrument as a craft activity, like a moracca or rainstick using toilet paper tubes and then play some favorite music and dance/sing and play your instruments. Try teaching her to clap to the beat or follow your lead in simple dance steps like turn in a circle, clap your hands, raise your hands, shake your hips, etc. She will love it I promise.
good luck

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You could have art time with washable tempera paints, Color Wonder products, etc. Then bath time, of course ;)

You could do music time. Amazon has age-appropriate instruments from third party sellers that are dirt cheap (a couple of bucks here & there, max). That would be something the baby could do as well. My kids are 3 & 10 mo. and we have music time together.

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We usually had a more structured morning (breakfast, getting ready, play-group (local and free), any errands that needed to be run, like library, groceries or post office. Then it was lunch and nap-time... or quiet time if you had outgrown your nap. At least 1 hour of playing quietly in your room or reading books.
After nap was snack and then crafty/playdough kinds of things, playing outside if the weather was nice. Playdough was my lifesaver to distract the kids while I made dinner.

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Do you have a playhouse or sandbox for her outside? Or a play kitchen for inside? Those can keep a kid busy for hours... Might be a good holiday gift for her. Other ideas for inside - buy one of those play tunnels or a play tent that you can collapse and store away in a closet. Both kids would probably like to play with those and you could do a little work while they're doing it. Check out www.handsonfun.com under Active Play for some affordable tunnels and stuff.

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Dance time! Put on some music everyone likes thats good to move around to. Try Jack Johnson, the Curious George Soundtrack is especially fun for them. My 2 year old loves to dance to Jack Johnson.

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Great ideas Trisha. I know my children love to help me. Also, I don't think they get enough exposure to music. My kids are a bit older, but those tips will work for me too. THanks.

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I am riduculously amused that I have long been a fan of your personal blog, AND your column here, and didnt know you were one and the same LOL

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Painting - and experimenting with, say, fingerpainting or sponge painting or painting inside a baggy or whatever.

Collage. Have her practice cutting magazines up with scissors, then she can glue the bits onto cardboard.

Neighborhood walks. Long ones where you can look under rocks or collect leaves or listen to bird songs. Short ones where you run around the block singing silly songs (loudly!), hoping to get back before you finish the third verse.

Have her help you cook dinner (or bake cookies), wash the dishes (she can rinse some of them standing on a chair, no doubt), clean up the house.

Play the "smelling game" where you pick several things (foods or spices or flowers or perfumes or whatever) and, uh, smell them. I connect this to letters when I do it, but that's just me.

Music/dancing time. Put on music, have her dance. Kid's music, classical music, any kind of music. Sing songs. Silly songs, serious songs, I get a lot of mileage out of ballads....

The old living room blanket tent or obstacle course always works.

Visit the local library. Or children's museum. Or whatever.

Make a regular playdate with a couple of her friends, or a couple of the kids of your friends.

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Having read your journal entry, and having been in a similar situation last year (watching my younger niece from two months on, and already watching my older niece - they're now 3.5 and one year), I have this piece of advice:

Going outside every day is a GOOD THING. It makes life infinitely better.

And a rough schedule (doesn't have to be set in stone, but it's good to have something laid out) may be hard to implement with a baby, but once it's set up and you've done it a few weeks, it's another thing that makes your life so much better, you can't believe it. Baby and toddler will adapt. Promise.

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I think it's good to have a routine - get up, get breakfast, get dressed, ... nap, ... lunch, ... snack, ... nap, ... dinner, bath, story, nurse, bed. But what goes where the ...s are should vary from day to day.

A psychiatrist told me that "consistency" in parenting is 80% - so if you give the same consequence for, say, biting 80% of the time, you're being "consistent." 1/5 times, though, you can sort of wing it without undoing all of your hard work.

Schedules, I think, are sort of similar. If there is a predictable framework of meals and rest around which the rest of the day is built, then you're doing it right. And if you hit that predictable framework 80% of the time, then you're REALLY doing it right.

Not every day is going to look the same. You won't have the same outings, chores, activities, etc. every day. No one needs to go to the grocery store every day, for example. So, give your kids a predictable framework, fill in activities as your responsibilities, the weather, their moods, what's on TV, etc. allow, and aim for that 80%.

The 80% rule has totally kept me sane since he told me about it. It's a great rule of thumb.

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Rachael, this is my first time in this blog site.. I have a 22 month old. She likes to walk along a board on the ground in the back yard.. It is on the ground, so I don't have to be right there going back & forth every time. Very inexpensive "balance beam" and provides LOTS of fun. Hope this idea will help.

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