When Naps Are a Thing of the Past

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen I had only three children {all under the age of three} naps were imperative, for all of us! Now that they are 7, 5½, and 4 years old, naps are a thing of the past. But there’s something still imperative about everyone having some downtime. So, we have “Quiet Time” between 12:30-2:00pm every day. During this time, my two youngest children {ages 1 and 2½} are napping, but my three older children are not.

Quiet Time used to be in the middle of the afternoon, for us, but now it begins immediately following lunch, when the younger two are tucked away in their rooms napping. We close all our blinds — something about closing the blinds communicates a ‘hush’ tone — and with our home tidied from the morning chaos play, we are ready to begin our Quiet Time Activities.

Quiet Time in our home has evolved over the years, like many things as children grow. In realizing that we all still needed down time, but not quite in the way of a nap anymore, I decided to create “Quiet Time Activities” for each individual child.  Anyone who didn’t need a nap would have the opportunity to play on their own; no loud noises, be mellow, stay separate, and guess what? No need to share! This means setting My First Dollhouse exactly how they want, or they could have the conversation with their Little People just as they imagine. It is their play time, just for them.

Of course, Quiet Time is also for me. I enjoy having the downtime as well. That moment when you breathe a sigh, and have the opportunity to sip hot tea {and maybe even finish it}, read a book, reply to emails, schedule appointments, or call to check on a friend. I can even use it for prepping dinner, or baking a special treat without ten hands trying to help. Or {gasp} take the opportunity to nap myself — don’t those 10 minute power naps do wonders?!

Instituting a Quiet Time

So, how did I start and what does it look like?

I went through our home and wrote down all the things my children could do that were age-appropriate, things they could do on their own, for at least 20-25 minutes. I also chose activities that are difficult to do with babies and toddlers awake. Have you ever tried to do a floor puzzle when a 12 month old and 2 year old are present? Trust me, I don’t recommend it. And, I also chose activities that they usually wouldn’t choose to play during the day.

Once I had my list of activities, I chose three activities and three locations in our home for each day of the week. I tried to choose seemingly different activities. So, for one day I may choose to have the dollhouse set up in the living area, a work-alone craft such as sticker by numbers at the dining table, and age-appropriate puzzles such as these in the master bedroom.

I assign my children to an Activity Station and tell them the rotation for that day. “Child A will start in the dining room, then move to the living room, then move to the master room. …. Child B will start in the living room, move to the dining room…” and so on. This allows each child to know their order of play, especially when they are excited about a certain activity.

I set the timer for up to 25 minutes. When the timer ends, each child is to take a few moments to clear up their mess, and pick up what they were playing with. In essence, getting it ready for the next child to start with a clean slate. It is also teaching the value of picking up after oneself. It gives a fresh start for the next child, and then there are no complaints about this activity being more to pick up than that activity, and starting the afternoon off sour. But, how would I know such a thing?

Benefits of Quiet Time

Quiet Time Activities gives something to each of us; for the placid child who enjoys being on their own, for the extrovert who needs to learn to enjoy being on their own, and for the leader who has no one to boss but themselves. Not only does it give individual play time, but sometimes the opportunity for me to be with a child one-on-one. I have a specific day set aside each week when I bake or prep dinner with my children, one at a time, as they rotate. It works wonderfully. You know that doing a floor puzzle thing with a 12 month old and 2 year old? Same goes for baking.

After Quiet Time Activities were established in our home as part of our day, I found that it worked marvelously to occasionally skip altogether and allow my older children to just play together, especially if they were outdoors and enjoying the sunshine, without the responsibility of having the younger ones in tow. On the other hand, if there seemed to be a need for everyone to rest after a busy weekend or an extra full weekday, I may just set up an audio book while they lay down on the couch and listen for the first Quiet Time Activity, and then separate after that for just two rotations. If I happened to judge poorly and the afternoon went haywire because Quiet Time Activities ought to have taken place, I have resorted to setting up Activity Stations behind closed doors and keeping the little ones with me in the living area. This has worked well also, though I seldom do it.

By the way, Quiet Time Activities dovetails nicely into our Circle Time or Morning Time. I know, it’s the afternoon, but this is when it fits perfectly into our day {right about 2:00pm}. Our alone time has come to an end, I gather my older ones to begin our Time together, and as the younger two get up, my lap is prepared to hold a drowsy wee one while they wake fully up, and the joy of Circle Time brings us to begin our afternoon together before five young ones are anxious to go running off and playing together.

Quiet Time Activities have created the wonderful opportunity of regular playtime alone. Planning it on paper has avoided me scrambling and feeling fragmented at a time when everyone, including Mama, needs a break, to stop for a moment and catch one’s breath, and then be ever-so ready for the afternoon. In our home, it brings a sense of peace and of joy even. Perhaps it is the privilege they have, if just for a short while, to play their way without anyone telling them otherwise.

Quiet Time Activity Ideas

Here are some things that work well for our Quiet Time Activities that aren’t listed above:

Day And Night Game, Color Code Game, Magnetic Dress-Up Dolls, Marble Race, Listening to music with headphones, or a story from Librivox.org with headphones, or playing a game on the computer with headphones, Stamping & Coloring. Other ideas that may work for your family: an age-appropriate do-alone craft, sewing kit, lego.

Click here to download!

I created a very simple document that is displayed on our school board for easy reference each day. You can download it here. On Thursdays we rest as we have P.E. that morning for 2 hours at a nearby park, plus my 4 year old may sometimes still fall asleep. You’ll also notice I have a rotation for Saturday as well. Whilst we do not have a school day routine on Saturdays we have found it’s still vital for a successful afternoon to have some alone, quiet time on Saturdays as well. Sundays we require everyone to lay down on their beds and rest because of our current schedule for that day, church in the morning and our small group that meets late afternoon. We may squeeze in a family board game of some sort toward the end of Quiet Time while the younger two are still napping.

So, here’s to planning a serene portion of your day, no matter the ages of your children.