What Works for Us: Table Time

Our routine has stabilized a lot in the couple of months. The last months of my pregnancy and the first months of Sven's life really threw a wrench in our normally well-ordered family life. But we've settled into a new normal and I am loving it.

One of the things that we have re-introduced to our daily schedule is table time. It isn't that complicated but I was talking to a neighbor about it and she said I should write about it on the blog. Apparently, she thought it was a brilliant idea. So here I am, writing about it on the blog.

Table time is pretty self-explanatory. The short version is this: during table time, the boys play at the table. That's it.

This is the long version: When our family comes inside from an afternoon out in the yard, I need to nurse the baby and make dinner. Soren and Carl can choose what they want to do but I choose where they do it: at the table. They can draw, play with puzzles, play games, or use play dough, so long as they do it at the table. Mostly they choose to draw. And if Sven is finished nursing, he enjoys sitting in his bouncer and watching them. When their dad comes home, Soren and Carl clean everything up and get ready for dinner.

Table time is very peaceful. I love it and the boys have never complained about it so I can only assume that they enjoy it, too. Both of them love to make things out of paper so they often opt to stay at the table even after I tell them they can leave. They sometimes ask their dad to come color with them when he gets home. (Scott usually just writes Chinese characters.) After a long day of activity, it is so nice to have everyone together and peaceful for a little while.

Comments

Surrounded by Love

One of my greatest worries about having four children was that I would not be able to welcome and love my new baby as well as I had the others. Now that he is here, I feel that he is perhaps the most welcomed and best loved of all my sons. More on that in a moment. I struggled to bond with Leif in utero, in part because pregnancy was old hat to me and in part because life was busy with too many other things. The new miracle growing inside of me was the most normal thing about my life. There were a few good moments that helped me prepare mentally: doing guided meditations during Christmas vacation, my blessingway on January 6th, and a really good conversation I had with Scott about my hopes and worries. But mostly, my mind was elsewhere. And then there was the birth. I should have known that it would be a totally unique experience and that it would prepare me for this totally unique child. Needless to say, I'm crazy about the little guy. ...

What Works for Us: Room Time

I've decided to do a new series of posts on how I make parenting work for us. Every parent does it differently--which is great!--but I have a hard time keeping my discoveries to myself. The things I do may not work for anyone else but I want to record them and remember them. Hopefully, it will also help me vent my soap-box-y-ness so that I'm not always imposing my ideas on other people. That will be what "What-Works-for-Us Posts" are about. One of the things that we have always done, but has made a HUGE difference in the move from one to two children, is Room Time . When Soren was 6 months old, I started having him play alone (in a safe place) every day for a few minutes. At first it was only five minutes in the port-a-crib but we quickly worked up to fifteen, then thirty. At that time, I used those precious minutes to do housework or relax on the couch. When I was pregnant with Carl, Soren would play alone for about an hour in his room and I would usually tak...

ABCs

A couple of months ago I was trying to encourage Soren to draw. For 15 or 20 minutes every afternoon, we would sit at the coffee table with paper and pencil. I would draw stick figures and doodles; Soren would watch, his own paper untouched. After a couple of days repeating my usual pictures over and over, I ran out of ideas and started writing the letters of his name. One day I wrote and drew pictures of all the things I could think of that began with S: Soren, snake, superman, spider, stars, etc. The next day we focused on the letter O. It gave me ideas for drawing, which kept Soren entertained even if it wasn't fulfilling its original purpose. A couple more weeks went by and I didn't put any effort into reinforcing the letters. So I was very surprised when, one day while reading a naptime story, he pointed to the page and said very distinctly, "ess". He was, in fact, pointing to an S. And he was very excited about it. So, instead of reading the book, we sp...

Mom Remembers

Search This Blog