Splitting My Day with Three Kids

Hi S.,
I'm a mother of 4 children and a daycare provider to 4 more. Here is our daily routine and what we do.
7:00 am everyone gets up and ready for the day.
7:30 am - 8:00 am breakfast
8:00 am - 9:00 am they have morning free time and my 7 yr old leaves for school
9:00 am - 9:30 am circle time - we go over our calender, the weather, who is here today our color of the month, weekday songs, our body parts, animal sounds, we sing the ABC'S and a couple songs.
9:30 am - 10:00 am we have morning snack.

10:00 am - 11:00 am we have outside playtime. If it is raining we have art time. And we have sensory table time. We also have one outside so we can do it out there also. (these are homemade)

11:00 am - 11:30 they have freetime and I fix lunch.
11:30 am - 12:00 noon. We have lunch.
12:00 noon - 12:30 everyone gets cleaned up and ready for nap.
12:30 pm - 2:30 pm afternoon nap, sometimes they sleep till 3:00 pm or so.
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm we go outside again for afternoon playtime.
4:00 pm afternoon snack
5:00 pm they are getting ready for nap.

I have 4 kids that I watch and they range in age from 14 months to 18 months, I am starting them on coloring on a piece of paper, with markers. You can give your 16 month old ALL kinds of things that will keep him busy with things. A cup and some cotton balls, blocks and a bucket, those pom poms in the craft dept and a bucket. The 6 month old you can put her close to you just so she can here what you are saying. Work in your snacks as learning time for your older child. The 6 month old could go down between circle time and outside time or something like that. Anyway these are just some of my thoughts.

P.S. A great website to print papers and crafts from is www.first-school.ws they have all kinds of sheets you can print off and the best part is they are all free. You can do as little or as much as you want to do, anyway hope this helps, W.

I have 3 kiddos. My oldest son will be 5 this july. my ,middle son will be 4 in October, and my daughter is almost 6 months old. I too have been trying to get on a scedule. Here's what i do. While my baby girl and middle child take naps(for a couple of hours), that's when i sit down with my oldest, who i'm also trying to get ready for kindergarten, and work with him on writing and other stuff. Then after the kid's naps, when the weather isn't icky, i usually take them outside to play for a bit. if we have to stay inside we have board games like chutes and ladders and candyland that we play together. Then i'll let them watch a couple of cartoons while i get some things done around the house. I just sort take the time to try to be with them more one on one. Sometimes (my hubby works midnight till 7am)when my hubby comes home from work he'll take one of the boys outside with him and then i will do activities with my other one. Now with Tara, she's getting to the age she likes to play. so i just sit a blanket on the floor put some toys down for her and she can be able to have tummy time. She doesn't know quite how to crawl yet. Good luck. It will probably get easier once your son starts K. I'm hoping that's the case here.

Hello!

My son is 17 months old, and I know how tough it is to entertain them sometimes. When he is with other kids, here's what I try:
Get all the kids set up to do something (5 year old, putting numbers in order; 16 month old, stacking blocks and knocking them down; 6 month old, tummy time). Try to have all the kids in the same room in the same area. Then just go to the kids and play/teach as needed. You will be near all of them, they will all be entertained with their toys/tasks or with each other, and you can spend one-on-one time with them all in that setting.
Good luck!

my daughter started daycare at a daycare center when she was 2 1/2 yrs old. They told me a schedule of her day when I called them to ask about it. I have since seen that the 3 yr old class and 4 yr old class have a daily schedule. I remember thinking that I wished I'd had that schedule to use as a guideline when I was staying at home with my daughter those first 2 1/2 years.

If I were you, I would call a daycare center by you and ask them what their daily routine/schedule is for that age (or the ages of your kids). I think that would help you have a guideline to incorporate in to your day!

I think that they will tell you that info especially if you express interest in their program.

Be encouraged!! It sounds like you have your hands full. Think about activities for the 5 year old that are independent and others that you do together. It may take some creativity. For an independent activity, maybe coloring a picture or doing a computer learning activity would keep him/her busy. At that time you may want to schedule your time with the 6month and 16month old babies. To steal some rest for yourself, try a relaxation game with the 5 year old and 16 month old, while the 6 month old is napping. It would be great if all of the children napped at the same time. Rarely things go as planned. Keep your snacks and outings among the entire group. I hope this helps. Good luck to you!!