OUR CURRENT DAILY RHYTHM

I’ve frequently been asked, especially lately with more families at home with their little ones, what our daily “schedule” or “routine” looks like.  Of course, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, things have shifted, but gratefully only ever so slightly. The biggest shift to our days is simply not being able to go on outings (to the park, the science museum, libraries & bookstores, errands, etc.), otherwise, the general rhythm of each day looks & feels very similar to pre-COVID times for us.

I look at our days more as a rhythm rather than a schedule, we have a few components of our day that I stick to as diligently as possible but what falls between them is more-open-ended & less structured. We tend to follow the mood of the day, allowing time for stillness & for the boy’s interests & ideas to direct what we do.

Here is a look at how our days generally go, though of course, these can vary based on what we have going on.  For context, at the current moment, my boys are 3-years-old & 2-years-old & both still taking one nap per day.

WAKE-UP: The boys often wake-up anywhere between 6:30-7:30am. During this time they help my husband with the chores (feeding the pets, scooping kitty litter, etc) & will read books or play independently until breakfast.

BREAKFAST: Between 7:30-8:00am we sit down for breakfast at the table.

MORNING PLAY: Following breakfast, we transition to play or reading or any combination of the two. This time is generally unstructured depending on the day. This often starts with the boys migrating to the nursery space & looking at books or playing with toys. I really let them take the lead here. Our book display is constantly in rotation so they have access to familiar & favorite books as well as new & seasonal books. This is often when I read to them as well, either a chapter book that I’m reading aloud or a handful of picture books they have selected. As much as possible this is also when we try to get outside & play in the backyard, so long as the weather isn’t cold rain. Sometimes I will have a recipe to bake with them or I will have a craft or planned sensory experience (like play dough, rice, etc).

LUNCH: When possible I love including the boys in preparing their lunches, cutting apples, spreading peanut butter on bread, scooping hummus, etc. I have come to learn that my boys take a very long time to eat lunch & prepare for their 12:30pm nap time. I work as diligently as possible to have lunch ready by 11:30am & to provide optimal time for eating, conversations & nap transition. If they finish their lunches early we engage in play until storytime.

STORYTIME: We always make sure to read a few books before nap, it’s the best way to ensure we get some reading time into our day (in the event that we didn’t read any books in the morning) & it signals to the boys that it’s time to calm down & prepare for rest.

NAP TIME: Both boys still take a daily nap & just like lunchtime I am diligent about having them in their beds as close to 12:30pm as possible. This time seems to be key for them, ensuring that they do indeed nap & get a significant amount of rest. During nap, I clean up lunch if I hadn’t done that yet, eat my lunch if I hadn’t done that yet & then this is my work window most days.

AFTERNOON PLAY: The boys will usually nap until 2:30-3:30pm & if they haven’t naturally woken up by 3:30pm I will wake them up to ensure they will be ready for bed by their normal bedtime. Afternoon play looks very similar to morning play & again we try to get outside during this time too. Sometimes we do a special movie, usually on Fridays. This is when they have a small snack too.

FAMILY WALK: If the weather is nice & time permits we love to take a walk before dinner is started.

DINNER PREPARATIONS: My husband usually gets home/wraps up work for the day around 5pm & is able to play with the boys while I begin dinner preparations. If he’s not available I usually set the boys up with an activity in the living room or a coloring activity at the table.

DINNER: As much as we can we try to eat dinner between 6:00-7:00pm. We eat as a family with the exception of weekends where my husband & I enjoy our meals together after the boys go to bed.

BATH, BOOKS & BEDTIME: For nearly the entirety of their lives we have followed the same bedtime routine for the boys, which helps immensely with winding them down & transitioning them to bed. Following dinner, the boys take a bath (or shower depending on how much time we have). Once they are out of the bath & in their jammies we read bedtime stories, anywhere from 2-5 books. After that, it’s bedtime, which is usually around 8:00pm.

I hope this helps provide some insight into how we approach our days. Since the boys are not school-aged I personally value certain experiences that will significantly decrease once they start school, like open-ended play, time in nature & stillness. At the same time, I think a predictable day & routine is important for all children, so while the general shell of our day allows for flow there are still rhythms & routines we practice daily.