Our naptime routine has gotten a little shaken up these past few weeks. Emmy typically takes a morning nap at 9 and then Bryce and Emmy both take an afternoon nap at 1. Bryce is a great napper and usually sleeps until 4. Emmy's naps are inconsistent, leaving me little time to actually get anything done during naptime. She hasn't been taking her morning nap recently (because we've been out or she won't sleep), but she still can't quite make it until the afternoon nap. So now that the kids aren't on any type of the same schedule for napping, I've been letting Bryce skip his naps so we're not forced to stay home for him to sleep for 3 hours, while Emmy is wide awake. Luckily, the lack of sleep hasn't been a problem as we near bedtime!
A friend of mine told me about rest time bins she saw on pinterest so I decided to give them a try so Bryce can still have some quiet time when Emmy naps and I can have a few minutes to get things done or even just relax for a few minutes. I found some leftover baskets from when I was teaching so I quickly put labels for each day of the week and filled them with things we already had around the house. I'll probably change them out every month and make some more activities to add variety. I was excited how well they fit under his bed.
I tried to include activities that Bryce can do by himself (and do them correctly) without feeling the need to call me for help.
Monday:
papers with straight lines, jagged lines, and shapes
a pair of scissors to practice cutting
puzzle
alphabet flashcards to match upper and lowercase letters
Tuesday:
puzzle
dry erase alphabet book to practice writing letters
Wednesday:
two small puzzles
coloring book and markers
Easter egg matching game (upper and lower case letters)
Thursday:
animal puzzles
dry erase board, marker, cards with shape words (and picture on back) to practice drawing shapes and maybe even write the words
Friday:
puzzle
dry erase animal book
old cookie sheet (magnet board), magnetic letters, word cards (number and colors) to spell words or find numbers
Bryce has quiet time in his room so he also has access to all of his books while he's in there. I have a ton of ideas of additional things to add to the bins, but these were all things I already had on hand and didn't need to make or go out and buy. He was very excited to get started on the first bin today. I sat with him before I left his room and explained everything in the basket to make sure he didn't have any questions. I was downstairs unloading the dishwasher and I heard banging in his room and I thought, oh no this whole "rest" time isn't going to work. But when I checked on him in the monitor I saw him working away on a puzzle. He probably did the puzzle about five times before he climbed in his bed to read some books. He never fights a nap, but he is excited about his new bins and no naps. I did tell them that there will still be days when he needs to nap, but it just depends on the day since I'm still trying to tweak Emmy's nap schedule.
I got on pinterest for the first time in a long time this afternoon to see if I could find the bins my friend was talking about. I thought it couldn't hurt to get a few more ideas for my bins as I add things. Here is what I found.
