what do your (older) KIDS do all day?

[IncaMama]

spin-off of my original question. rowan's life sucks right now. LOL we stay inside 99% of the time in the family room (his playroom) with the TV on. omg awful!! i'm in such a rut right now and have no creativity or energy to think of other things to do. i don't even play with him too much these days. i suck!!

give me ideas. what do your kids do all day?? HELP!

[birthjunkie27]

michele, again, you aren't alone. my kids spend most of their day watching cartoons (nick jr or noggin). and then we mix it up in the late afternoon with Playstation. : Mikayla plays while Jimmy watches. He does get turns, but he's not really good at it yet so he prefers watching "sissy" play. And sometimes they play games online. Jimmy can handle these...like sesamestreet.org They will go into their rooms and play with eachother a lot throughout the day too. But this almost always results in : if not

I feel really bad too, but I don't want to send them out to play or their boogers will turn into icicles.

On days I feel like overacheiving,...we bust out some paint. They love getting their fingers in paint and making pictures. But this is like once every 2 wks.

[darkpear]

Ugh, yep, lots of screen time going on here too. Now that I'm past the 6 week mark I am thinking I will try and get back into DDR... yeah, it's still screen time but at least it's physical, right? Amalie doesn't really get it yet but she gets a kick out of trying.

[mariposita]

yep, same here...nick jr until noon. : then i try to get active. we make lunch together, eat, play (while i sit in the rocker, we do some sort of imagination game together - like
tossing pretend foods to eat other and gobbling them up, or playing ghosts). if i was on top of it the night before to get supplies ready, i pull up his craft table next to me and we do a special project. today we're using a stick we found on one of our walks and gluing two hearts to the end to make a valentine's wand. tomorrow we might make a valentine's bookmark out of hearts and ribbon to give to his dad. sometimes it's just crayons, clay, beeswax, painting. then after play or the project we clean up for a few minutes and go for a walk - between 30-60 minutes. or the playground. but honestly i sit most of the day.

here's the routine i'd like to work on. i believe in rhythm of the day and having up and down time alternating, so that's what i'm going for:

get up and get ready
take dad to work
breakfast
2 nick jr shows (as compared to hours)
go for 1/2 hr. walk or playground
art project
play while i clean house
make and eat lunch
downtime/quiet play/reading
go for long walk 1 hr
startmaking dinner (i don't cook, so this is the hardest part)
pick up dh from work
eat
family time
bath
read books
bedtime

[mariposita]

i forgot to add...i feel slightly less guilty knowing i'm not the only one doing screen time. i want to eventually go tv free but it's just not happening anytime soon.

[IncaMama]

if i tried to go TV free i'd spontaneously combust.

[darkpear]

I dunno if I could do the TV free thing either. And ours isn't even on THAT much. Amalie can take it or leave it, I have a few shows I try to catch over the course of the week, and DP is the kind of guy who just likes it on as background noise... it used to bug me but ya know, he's a sweet guy and a fabulous dad and to me TV just is not worth fighting over. I'm not really going for the super crunchy award anyhow though!

What I'm REALLY attached to is my computer though...

[witchbaby]

heh, me, too. m doesn't much like me to put him down and doesn't do great in the sling, so i've seen a lot of sesame street and big big world recently.

[birthjunkie27]

Originally Posted by darkpear

I'm not really going for the super crunchy award anyhow though!

What I'm REALLY attached to is my computer though...

me too!!

[MamaTaraX]

Umm...well. My toddler spends most of his day cooking (with me or at his wooden stove), drawing, playing around, dumping blocks, bugging his daddy, holding his baby brother, begging to see Thomas (he has a weird obsession with thatstupid train...). I try to not give him access to the TV. In fact, he doens't watch it almost any at all. UNTIL night time. If he stays up too late, its abou thte only thing I can do with him where he doesn't makemuch noise (we have a neighbor who goes ballistic if there is much noise, unfortunately). So he watches videos or shows. But most of the day he jhust plays and we read and color and hang out. He gets a little aggitated someetimes when I have to nurse the baby but for the most part, he's cool. The biggest kid is in school. On days whenhe is home and in the evneing when he is here, he plays with the toddler, they're great company for each other

Namaste, Tara (yeah, I know, I"m a Jan mom but I loved your DDC so much I felt like posting *grin*)

[spiralmg]

Well due to my hard-headedness, we don't generally do TV during the day unless I am seriously at my wits end. I go through a certain amount of self-induced torture and stress rather than succumb to the TV. When I do succumb, DS gets to watch taped episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine, Mr. Rogers and Bob the Builder. And only two. Thomas is the favorite.

Armed with his memories of Thomas, he usually spends a good portion of the day at his train table (we got one used) telling stories to himself. Lately he has also been amusing himself by "doing dishes", playing with a toy vaccuum cleaner. Sometimes we read books but I have been slacking in that department lately. It's just kind of hard with a fussy baby. I've had some help lately - oh my goodness that is nice - she paints with him and reads. Eating at the table together can take up a certain amount of time. Twice now we have gone to a local homeschool playtime - that was nice.

OH! Dancing and singing! We do a lot of dancing and singing. I like it, DS likes it and the baby likes it too. I put her in the sling and make up dance steps to all kinds of music or make up our own music. DS likes that a lot!

However, I swear, as posted in another thread, I don't know what we do in the mornings though, and most of many days. Then it seems like he is just making messes and I'm trying to catch up after him.

[oliversmum2000]

me too!

i find the more i relax and allow tv the more time there is for fun stuff if i constantly try to do things with them then i am grumpy and we dont really have any fun if there is tv then i can rest get stuff done then when i am ready we play and its a lot more fun

so i guess in that sense less is more!

i have to go and get some breakfast now

[kris10s]

My dd1 watches Playhouse Disney until 9, when dd2 and I wake up, and then she watchs NickJr. while I feed the baby, shower, etc. Then, by 10 I try to have the TV off and do something else (read, run around the apartment, play, etc.) until lunch and nap and then I try to do some outside time (errands or outdoor play) and then more TV time while I figure out dinner. By having my on time in two short chunks, I am able to be really on. The less TV right now, the grumpier I am!

[hottmama]

My 3 yr. old spends Wednesdays and Sundays with his dad, so I only have 5 days a week (thank goodness!). We have playgroups on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the other days we try to hang out with little friends, run errands, and play at home. We don't have a TV, luckily (but are considering buying some kid DVDs for our computers).
Luka is happy in the sling, so Julian and I play basketball in his room and clean the house together.
We all spend a lot of time in bed, Julian has his dollhouse in the family bedroom so he plays with that while I nurse Luka and surf the web.
Getting out of the house every day really makes us all feel better, and having breaks from Julian twice a week help Luka and I get time to ourselves. I make sure that I spend one-on-one time with Julian when my partner (Luka's dad) is home- Julian really gets out of sorts when he's attention deprived.

[MistyB]

we get up about 9:30
watch tv (pks kids or discovery health)
eat breakfast
he plays computer games (noggin, pbs kids, starfall)
I take him to Montessori across the street at 12:30 and pick him up at 3
I go to the gym everyday with baby while Alec is at school. ; ) She lays on the floor while I work out.
We run errands after I pick him up. Try to do this daily so he can get out. Even if it is to Target to get a snack and to pick up essentials.
At least once a week I take him to a big indoor playplace.
His grandma and grampa get him usually 2 evenings a week and they go sledding, cook or do some fun "work" project. Whent he weather is better, they garden and landscape.