As our children grow and change so does our routine and schedule. I always felt like I would just get our new routine down and he would change it up on me. Now that he is getting a little older I have found that I have a little more say in that routine. It is time to start adding even more time for new and exciting activities (we were doing it all along, but now that he is older the activities are more exciting to me!)
This is a sample of what a typical day looks like for us at this time. Obviously, things change and we go with the flow. On our normal days we stick close to this and our day flows fairly well.
7:00-8:15
This is our normal wake up time these days. Long gone are the days he would sleep in until 8:15. We start the day with some snuggles until we are awake enough to start our day. He usually likes to play for a few minutes while I prepare breakfast. We eat breakfast together and start our day with a morning prayer (which is the sweetest thing, he now is ready to hold my hand to pray before we eat).
8:15-9:30
We live in Florida. With that said I am sure you can understand the reason behind such an early outside time. We try to beat the heat and enjoy some cooler morning weather. Our outside time looks different most days, some days we go for a walk and play in the yard. Others we do some water table play and bubbles. We just try to soak up as much fresh air and vitamin D that we can before the heat is turned up for the day.
9:30-10:30
Being a toddler and a boy, after outside always requires some cleaning and often times a new set of clothes. We head to the kitchen for some water and a little snack. While he is snacking I try to prepare our planned activity. I am working to make a list of the many activities we use. I am currently trying to do a new one everyday for the month, primarily with items we have around the house. (Let me know if this is something you would like a list of.) We spend time learning and playing with the open-ended planned activity and will stay engaged with it as long as he shows interest.
10:30-11:30
Once he has lost interest in the planned activity we clean up and head to the living room for some play time or book reading. I follow his lead and stay actively engaged with him for the first half of this time. From around 11:00 I start to prepare some lunch and often times I will turn some music on and we will have a kitchen dance party.
11:30-12:30
We once again will eat lunch together and talk about the food we are eating. After lunch we head to his room for some book time. He is a huge book lover. You can check out this post with some tips to get your little to love reading too. After we have read a few we prepare to sleep.
12:30-3:00
He does not always sleep this long. When he does though, the rest of the day is much better. During this time I try to complete what I need to or take a nap, it’s a toss up. Being 6 months pregnant that nap sometimes wins.
3:00-4:00
Now that I have accomplished what I need to while he was sleeping, I try to give him one-on-one time or he helps me finish up whatever I was working on. He will eat a snack after waking up. Then we either play inside or if it is nice enough we will head back outside for a while.
4:00-5:00
This is new to our routine as my husband just changed his work schedule. He is now home earlier than before and is able to spend some time with our son while I try to prepare dinner.
5:00-7:30
We eat dinner together and from their we decide where our evening will take us. Often times we will end up going for a walk in the neighborhood or watering the garden. Other times we may venture out and go somewhere for a little while. Family time is just the spontaneous time we spend together.
7:30-8:30
We will brush teeth, take a bath, and prepare for bed. Some days this will be a little later depending on what our evening included. Once he is washed up we begin our bedtime routine similar to nap time of books and snuggles. After he is down we finish resetting the house for the next day and I will prepare my husbands lunch for the next day.
My Schedule
Now, my schedule looks a little different as I wake up around 5:15 most days. I teach classes in the morning to students overseas. After I teach I will get ready for the day and have some time with my husband prior to him leaving for the day. And at the end of the night, setting the house back up for the next morning is a huge help for how our day will go. When I don’t get it all put back together at night I feel like I start the next day behind from the start. As tired as I am at the end of the day it is always worth it to clean up prior to going to bed.
I hope this schedule gave you a little insight to how a typical day looks for us. We all have our unique routines but it is also helpful to look at other families to learn and improve our own.