Control the Fun – Quiet Time

Sometimes I get a little nervous when I write a post having to do with reading or writing activities,  because I think you think I’m interested in educating my children.  I’m not. I save that for their teachers. What I am interested in is keeping my kids quiet.

Besides, I don’t do well when I try to instruct Hadley and Harper.  Take today, for example. The three of us went to the neighborhood splash park for a couple of hours and when we got back into the car, Hadley buckles her seat belt and says, “Mama? Gimme a math problem. The hardest math problem you can think of. Just no division.”

Harper wanted to know what division meant, and so, as a way to stall coming up with the hardest math problem I can think of (they’re ALL hard for me), I made an attempt to explain what division is to Harper:

“Let’s say I have six M & Ms,” I began. “If there are three of us and I have six, how many do each of us get if I hand them out evenly?”

Harper looked at me blankly while Hadley counted on her fingers. “We each get two M & Ms,” Hadley said.

“That’s right,” I said, putting the car in reverse. “That’s division.”

“Uhhhh, Mommy?” Harper said.

“Yes?”

“Two M & Ms is not enough for me.”

“Yeah, Mama, why would you only give us two M & Ms?” Hadley asked.

“Well, it’s just an example…”

“Is the day hot like it is today when you gave us the two M & Ms?” Harper wanted to know. “Because I don’t like M & Ms when it’s hot outside.”

“Yeah, me either!  Can we just have ice-cream?”

“Yeah! Can we go out for ice-cream?”

This is why I don’t educate my children, and instead, focus on keeping them quiet.

You can’t go into summer with kids without a plan for a little quiet in the day, otherwise it’s going to be like those snow days of ’14 that nobody cares to speak of.

Enter Quiet Time.

I’ve been doing Quiet Time since Hadley was a little older than three and decided she wasn’t going to take naps anymore, and I decided I didn’t want that two hours of peace and quiet in the afternoon to go away. I know some of you would say, “Oh, but that is the special time when you could give one-on-one attention to your child and play with only him/her.”  And you are so right. It is a very, very special time.  But you know what else is special? Reading InStyle magazine and wondering important things like whether I should have my hair highlighted professionally or just do it myself.  Those are special times, too.

Here’s what I do: I go through all of the girls’ things and make a list of activities that they can do for 30-60 minutes. These are toys, books, activities that they see EVERY SINGLE DAY but ignore and instead say, “I’mboredIhavenothingtodoMamacanwegotoFiveBelowandbuyatoy?” But listen – if you write things down on cute cards and put stickers on them? You are golden. You will be reading InStyle in no time.  Or I don’t know, Sports Illustrated. Just not the swimsuit edition, OK?

Right now, Hadley and Harper have an hour of quiet time, but when we first started out, we would shoot for 25-35 minutes.  Each summer we up the number a little bit. By high school I’ll just need to give them breakfast and we’ll be good for the rest of the day.

Hadley and Harper pick three activities, I write them down, set the timer and we are good to go.

With July 4 right around the corner, you could even incorporate some festive worksheets for the kiddos. As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m a big fan of All Kids Network. 

Or have them deck the house with stars and stripes.

You can tell from the picture that Harper is swiftly moving up the stairs to place her star on the railing, so hey! She’s getting exercise, too! You just can’t go wrong with quiet time.

Come on, people. You know I’m just being sarcastic. Today in the car, after the “M & M Division Flop,” Harper asked me what an opinion was. I tried again to shed some wisdom on my young child’s mind:

“Let’s say I asked you guys what you wanted to do today,” I began.  “Hadley says, ‘I want to go to the movies,’ but Harper, you say, ‘I don’t want to go to the movies.’  Those would be two different opinions about what we should do that day.”

“Uhhh, Mommy?” Harper said.

“Yes?”

“I would never say I didn’t want to go to the movies.”

“Yeah, me either,” Hadley adds.

“Unless I was sick, then maybe I’d say that, but I don’t think so.”

My response to this? “How about we go home and have some quiet time?