Room Time, my sanity saver! My sister in law talked to me about this. Her kids are in elementary and middle school now and they still enjoy time to themselves playing independently. She feels as if it has helped to build their imaginations and fostered independence. I also read about room time in a parenting book and knowing older children who benefited from it definitely convinced me. The book indicated that is also helps to improve your child's attention span because they are not always watching Mommy to see what she is doing and thereby getting distracted. It all starts with the play pen when your children cannot play safely in their room independently and lasts for as little as a few minutes and now for us it has moved to their room with a gate up. Ideally it is independent but I still have not come up with a solution for the boys to have separate areas.
I don't do this daily but on a regular basis I put the boys in their room to play for about 20-30 minutes. I get down all of their favorite toys and let them have at it. On a normal day they have no objections. Every once in a while Alex will have a clingy day and not want to do it but typically I sit with him for a few minutes in the room and play and then he is content. I can then use the time to do whatever I need to get done and I know they are safely playing. I also look forward to this time as a breather for me. Anyone who has a two year old (or two ;D) can probably sympathize and understand why even 2 minutes of having no one under your feet would be heavenly. On Saturday mornings this gives Jared and I enough time to conquer cleaning and organizing the house together and then we have a clutter free weekend.
All I can say is it "Works for Me". Head over to "We are THAT Family" and hear what works for other Mommy bloggers.
Below is and example of a time it didn't "work" quite as well. It also reminds me to caution you that you have to make sure you check on them regularly (especially when it gets quiet like it did on this particular day) and make sure all "fun" things that toddlers like to explore but shouldn't is out of reach. Thankfully these were the safety Q-tips.
3 comments:
That is great idea. Yes justa few minutes to yourself is a great thing! You can get so much more done and then when it's done then you can play with them. My boys know that they have about 15-20 minutes where they need to keep themselves out of trouble while I get dinner on at night after work/school it's worked out, but then I give them my undivided attention after dinner for doing it good before dinner. Thanks for sharing!
It doesn't take them long to find something to get into. My kids are the same way. I keep telling myself that they will grow out of it soon!! Please. Looking forward to Ladies night!! So you tonight!
We did the same thing with our twins when they were that age, and still occasionally do it now as well.
For me it helped to not give them all of their toys at one time, less to clean up later.
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