The hardest thing for me is deciding what to do each day and with a toddler, if I haven't decided by 8:30 am, we won't be out off the house until naptime! I knew I wanted to have a schedule (and I'm not a Type A scheduly type of person) so the night before my official first day of SAHM-dom, I spent some time planning our weeks.
First, I broke down a typical day:
8:00 - Breakfast
9:30 - Snack
11:00 - Lunch
12:00 - Nap
So I figured I could have 1 or 2 activities in the morning, always out of the house and one in the afternoon that didn't require driving.
Then, I started with things that are scheduled. I'm joining a play group that meets Mondays at 10:30 and library story time is on Fridays at 10:30. Perfect. I also really want to get into an exercise routine and that would need to be a morning activity, so I plugged that in on M, W, and F.
Next, I listed all of the short and longer activity options: Sea World, Zoo, Children's Museum, Park, Beach, etc.
4:00 is the toughest time of day since my energy and motivation are lagging and traffic is bad, so I decided that would be craft/new activity at home time or a trip to the neighborhood park with the dog.
Here's my finished plan:
I'm on naptime of day 2 and we've already run at the bay, shopped at Trader Joe's, taken the dog to the park, and gone to the zoo! Not bad. (And I even got a blog post in. Score.)
The next goal is being productive during naps, but I'm trying to go easy on myself which is hard since I feel like I really have to make these two months count.
I love that you have a routine to go by. I would do the same if I were a SAHM. Hopefully you can find other ways to have playdates so you can get more adult interaction. I try to loosely plan my Wednesday and weekends, but often I end up winging it.
ReplyDeleteYou can also schedule in there a day to go run errands and grocery shop. That takes a good hour or two sometimes. I know my son just likes to be out somewhere no matter what we do.
LOVE IT! I work pretty much all summer, but if I didn't, I know I would have to have a schedule or I'd go nuts! I'll have some time off in July and I'm pretty sure I'll be copying you :)
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome. I'm home for summer too, so we're learning our new routine. It is hard work! We generally do breakfast, activity, snack while out at activity, home for lunch, nap, snack, outdoor activity, play inside, dinner, bath, bed. The park has been a big one lately (he spent 2 hours there this morning) but we also have swim lessons one day a week. Other days we will alternate library story times, indoor playspace time, local farm trips, etc. I wish we lived closer!
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