About a month ago, I began noticing that neither Marshall nor Shaylen were really napping up in their rooms. They were very quiet and stayed very still in their beds, but I would hear them sigh or whisper to their stuffed animals. I finally decided that the time had come...the time to drop the naps. Gasp! and Gulp!I treasured that two hour time span where I got so much done. When we first moved to Maine, I remember our pastor's wife, Judy, telling me that her kids had a quiet time each day when they were small. It was a great idea
and I wanted to see if I could incorporate it into our schedule here at home as well. I'm glad I did. The kids love it and ask for "Quiet Time" each day.They go to their rooms and are able to pick and choose coloring books, toys or books from their "quiet time basket" (or whatever quiet toy is already in their room) and entertain themselves quietly & independently. Their favorite thing though, is to lay on the floor and listen to one of their Classical Kids' CD's. They started off with 45 minutes of quiet time and lately have been asking for two CD's which makes it just over an hour and a half. They are so good and play so quietly. It is just enough time for me to get some quiet time myself and gear up for the rest of the day.
2 comments:
Hey, Crystal! The kids enjoy looking at your blog with me. I'm so happy that it looks as if you've sold your house! :-)
I was just going to offer another suggestion for quiet time. James has been doing it since he was 3, and we are introducing Evelyn to it a little at a time. We have allowed him to listen to audio books, and he has loved it! It started off with Raggedy Ann & Ragged Andy which we bought him for Christmas. We've checked many out of the library, and we've built up quite an audio library that we've purchased ourselves. If you're interested, I can give you the titles of some. James LOVES his quiet time each day. He still reads, plays, builds or rests while he listens to it, but it's really helped increase his vocabulary and understanding. Just a suggestion. :-)
I would love some suggestions. We have about 10 audio books already that they enjoy listening to in addition to the Classical Kids CD's, but we're always open to more! You're right, it does help their vocabulary and imagination. We hear snippets of their stories' phrases in their imaginative play and it's funny to hear animals called Prince Timino or Princess Pamina! We also like it that they can recognize classical music on the classical station and say, "Mommy! That's Beethoven!"
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