How do you first establish a "quiet time" in place of naps?

[simplemama32]

DS will be 3 in a few months and appears to be dropping his nap.  I would like to start an afternoon period of quiet time, but am not sure how to get started with it.  DS is a pretty spirited child, and though he needs to have some down time, he has trouble getting his little body to calm down enough to be still.  I'm also not sure he would even understand the concept of quiet time. 

If you do quiet time, how did you first set it up?  Did you start with 10 minutes or so and work up to longer?  What kind of activites do you have available for your child during that time?  I've thought about doing Project Time instead of a quiet time, where we could work on a quiet-ish arts/craft project together.

[KJunebug]

I just kept putting her down for naps as per usual, but kind of morphed it into a time where it was o.k. if she got her books out.  She has a bookcase bed, and I loaded it up for her during her "nap time," which is really her "quiet" (but not very quiet) time.  For her the key is some alone time... she will usually do about an hour, we go get her when she sounds agitated.

Good luck!

[NewMoonMum]

pretty much same as KJunebug. I just would tell DS at first he did not need to sleep, but he had to lay down, and eventually it turned into "you don't have to stay in bed, but you need to play quietly in your room". I think even if he rebels against it, you should really try for some quiet time instead of or in addition to crafts-even if it does only start out as 10 minutes. It will be good for you both!

[Courtney-Ostaff]

I drove around in the afternoon until she fell asleep (usually took about 15 minutes) for a long time.  Nowadays, I just let her sit on the couch and watch TV for an hour between 2 and 3.  Then she can help me start dinner. (We eat at 5)