Quiet Time

We have always been a scheduled family. A friend gave me the advice, back when Alex was a baby, to keep a consistent nap schedule for him. And while it's not right for every family, it has been amazing in ours. Alex took 2 daily naps for 19 months, and still slept in the afternoons until age 4. Thomas followed a similar pattern and, at almost 3 1/2, is still napping every day.

When Alex outgrew his afternoon nap, we transitioned him to "quiet time". Each day, he spends 1 1/2 hours in his room doing his own thing while Thomas naps. NOTE: It's hardly ever QUIET. We are very fortunate that, with white noise and a bathroom between the boys' rooms, Alex can pretty much be as loud as he wants to be in his room with his door shut, and he doesn't wake Thomas up. (That's why I totally GET IT that this quiet time thing wouldn't work in all households).

So, what does Alex DO in quiet time?

Well, when we first started, we had a special box of activities he could pull out that were reserved for that time. For quite a while, that's what he did. And we've changed the activities out here and there. We've taken up Legos and other new toys once in a while.

But most of the time, he just does his own thing.

He puts on music.

He jumps on his bed.

He sings.

He reads.

He makes cards for people.

He finds objects in his room to give away and wraps them with wrapping paper and tape.

I think this time is SO valuable to not only me, but to HIM. I think that kids NEED time and space on their own. He needs his "me" time. He needs to be away from Mommy and Thomas and just BE.

And honestly, some of the stuff he does up there blows me away. I have 3 recent examples to share.

About 2 weeks ago, he made and cut out of paper a sun and hung it high up on his wall. Then he cut up smaller strips of paper and made them into blades of grass and hung them down at the baseboard. He told me, "I decided I'm starting spring in here."

A few days later, he came down and told me, "Mommy, I'm learning to count by sixes. I learned 6, 12, 18. AND I jumped on my bed for 3 minutes, which is 180 seconds." Me: SPEECHLESS. I taught him exactly none of that. I'm pretty sure he could homeschool HIMSELF. And his brother. And ME, for that matter.

And yesterday, he decided to organize his dice collection -- he has random dice with different shapes and numbers of sides. He then made this GRAPH showing how many dice he had with 6 sides, 12 sides, etc.

I kid you not.

I wish I could take credit, but it's all him. My kids are who they are. And they are both AWESOME.

Loving life on Boomerang Drive!

-- Holly