Tuesday 2 August 2016

Toddler Schedule and Activity Planner




Toddlers! Can they be more active? A bundle of energy, perpetually curious and always on the move. They are constantly on the look out to discover something new in this ever expanding world. As parents, their energy, not to mention the daily grind, can leave us a bit over-whelmed. But guess what? It really doesn’t have to be this way. A little planning and scheduling can go a long way in helping us gain our sanity as well as spend quality time and a productive day with our kids.

When we moved to India, all routines and schedules went out the window. Every day would pass by haphazardly and unproductively. I knew I had to make a conscious effort to bring our lives back in track. And that is when I started planning our day out. I have been working on scheduling my daughter’s day for the past one month and it has worked wonders! You see, children thrive on routines. Even as an adult, don’t you feel that the day goes smoothly when you know what comes next? It is the same with children.

First off, I observed Amina’s day, the time she got up, when she felt hungry, when she go to sleep etc, and jotted the time down. I then made a table keeping the times in mind. I divided the day into two parts- morning and evening. Each part has a set routine in order of priority – Self care (brushing, change of diapers etc), eating, activity, snack, activity, nap, lunch/dinner. The end result looks something like this:


7:30 am
Brush and change diapers
8:00-8:30am
Breakfast
8:30-9:00am
Coloring/Reading/ Quiet Activity I
9:00-9:30am
Gross Motor Play (GM)
9:30-10:00ama
Snack Time
10:00-11:00am
Fine Motor Activity (FM)
11:00-11:15am
Bath
11:15am
Nap











Now my favorite part- Planning Activities! There are so many things you can do here. I found this super helpful since I planned the activities keeping in mind the materials already available at home. All I had to do was prepare things before hand and lay it out for Amina to play with.

I first listed the skills that I felt are important for a child’s development- Gross motor skills (GM), Fine motor skills (FM), Speech and language skills (SL), sensory skills (SN). Once I had this down, it was much easier to tailor the activities targeting these areas. This is a part of the weekly activity planner: 

Targets
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
GM
Obstacle Course
Climbing Stairs
Ball Catch And Throw
Jump Over Rope
Chase and Catch Game
Jumping In and Out the Square
FM
Opening And Closing Boxes
Painting
Play Dough
Pull out ribbons
Push Pipe cleaner in the box
Transfer balls from one box to another

To bring in a variety, I added 2-3 activities under each target area. Some activities also targets more than one skill. For instance while playing with a dough the child works on her fine motor skills, sensory skills, as well as language skills when you introduce new vocabulary such as press, sticky, roll etc.

Of course, there will be days when all plans will lay forgotten and you just want to get yourself through the day. Many a times you will also have to be flexible to accommodate a toddler's unpredictable behavior. And that is perfectly alright. One thing I would like to mention is, as much as I do plan, I also sincerely believe that adults need to take a back seat and contribute just enough where we do spend time with our children but at the same time it is the child who is leading the play and not us.
I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me :)


2 comments:

  1. Lovely post,jazakillah khair dear sis :)
    I love reading your posts

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    Replies
    1. Wa iyyakum:) I am glad to hear that. Thanks for such an encouraging comment!

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