Welcome parents of littles! I hope you find my resources helpful and learn a few tips and tricks to make life a little smoother and, dare we hope, enjoying more sleep!
Tips
Keep them busy!
Paint with water! Buy a 1″ sponge paint brush and let them “paint” with a plastic bowl of water. They can paint the house, car, patio, planter pots, fence, etc. (Just be aware the foam rips easily on the brushes and the wood handle may scratch a car.)
Let them try yoga in the living room.
Dance party to favorite music
Hide plastic easter eggs around the house. If they find them all they get a prize, or put stickers or something little in each one.
Play Cat in the Hat after they make a mess. How quickly can they clean up? Time them. Everyone helps and it’s clean quickly!
Kids get easily overwhelmed with too many toys. They make a huge mess and yet act like they have nothing to play with. Only give them access to 2 toys at a time. Keep the rest in a bin somewhere. Rotate them every week or so. They will feel like the “new” toy is new and super enaging and will hold their interest. They will also be able to clean up easier because they only have to sort 2 toys (like blocks and cars, or magnatiles and figurines)
Pick a day a week for “Art day” This is when they get to be messier. Playdough, painting, glue, glitter, etc. Make Oobleck or other fun tactile recipes.
Buy paint with water coloring books or Color Wonder markers.
Who says baths are only for nighttime? Take a bath break during the day if your kiddo loves them.
“Schoolwork”
- Buy child scissors and draw simple curve lines and let them practice tracing those lines and then cutting on them.
- Counting – how many doors/windows in your house, forks, how many red things can they find in the living room, etc.
- Give them magazines, empty food boxes, scratch paper and let them cirlce all the “b’s” they can find. See if they can find all the letters in their name on one box.
- Write their name on paper and see if they can start to copy it. Start with tracing it in big letters. Rainbow tracing can be done with 4 colors.
Reward Charts – Let them pick a prize to earn towards, however, you must follow through to give them their reward so they earn the trust that they get their positive reinforcement for their effort. Keep it simple: later bedtime, 1 extra cartoon, more screen time, doing a craft like painting that is often avoided because of the mess, help fix lunch, let them “wash dishes”, lunch at the park, etc.
- Put a little water in the sink with bubbles and a dishrag and let them them stand on a chair and wash food off your dishes, knowing they will get wet, but have fun too.
- They can match up clean silverware and put it away.
- Match clean socks and maybe even roll them together.
- Show them how to lay t-shirts flat in a pile on a chair so you can quickly fold them later.
- Let them correctly turn inside out dirty laundry.
- Wear a sock on their hand and dust baseboards.
- Let them dust their bedroom.
- Make their own bed.
- They can restock a diaper changing station.
- Have them empty bathroom trashcans into a big kitchen trash. They can also put clean bags in the bathroom cans.
- Feed and water the dog or cat.
Books
- Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood by Jim and Charles Fay
- Parenting with Love and Logic by Foster Cline and Jim Fay
- Happy Healthy Child
- Happies Baby on the Block
- La Leche League
- Sleep Wise, at least for the foundation of it. I don’t recommend strict clock timing of the schedule, babies and life are too fluid for that kind of retrictions which then make a parent very stressed.
Development
Sleep is of the utmost importance for their developing brain and body. Think about how poorly you can concentrate and work when you are sleep deprived. Kids are doing the most rapid growth and brain development from birth to 5 years old. They need lots of sleep to learn EVERYTHING and be able to retain it. What’s the first thing prescribed when our bodies get sick? Rest and more sleep! I also believe a well rested body on a regular basis gets ill less often too. Generally speaking, if you make their naps and an early bedtime a priority you will find your child is healthier, less hyper and overall an “easier” child, which in turn allows you to have more sleep and quiet time to recharge as well, which is vital for everyone’s well being. Many times meltdowns and tantrums are rooted in a tired and overstimulated child. These little boogers don’t want to miss anything in life so they fight sleep too. I remember practically laying on top of my son when he was 2 until he relaxed and took a nap. I had to do this for about 4-7 days and then he quit fighting me on naps again and napped pretty well until Kindergarten, except on occasion, like the day he didn’t at grandma’s house! He found a sharpie and proceeded to draw on all the grout lines of her shower wall and colored in the floor in front of the toilet! Like I said, all little boogers will fight sleep if something else seems more fun!
I have 3 kids with ADHD and some learning disabilities, but I still enforced sleep on my kids and at least rest times as they got older. I was constantly asked how I got my kids to go to bed at 7pm every night. I started a routine of wake, play, eat, sleep from about 6 weeks old and it became all they knew and expected. All 5 kids pretty easily fell into a rhythym and slept well. Children thrive in consistency and structured environments. All of my kids also napped until they were about 4 years old. Sleep wasn’t a choice and everyone was happier for it. It was hard managing nap times with multiple kids, but I made that sacrifice to be home a lot when they were little and it was well worth it. Now, I had the luxury of being a full time SAHM at the time, so of course that makes a huge difference, but even if you can’t control naptimes, you can slowly work towards making bedtime a steady routine and slowly move the time earlier if need be.
Of course, sometimes even with the best effort, some kids just don’t sleep well, but I have found that it usually has more to do with consistency and priority of the parent to create the environment for healthy sleep. Most children are very capable of adapting to new rhythms when introduced and given firm expectations.
| Age | Total sleep hours | Total hours of nighttime sleep | Total hours of daytime sleep | How many naps? |
| Newborn | 16 hours | 8 to 9 | 8 | 4+ |
| 1 month | 15.5 hours | 8 to 9 | 7 | 4 |
| 3 months | 15 hours | 9 to 10 | 4 to 5 | 4 |
| 6 months | 14 hours | 10 | 4 | 3, maybe 2 |
| 9 months | 14 hours | 11 | 3 | 2 |
| 1 year | 14 hours | 11 | 3 | 2, maybe 1 |
| 1.5 years | 13.5 hours | 11 | 2.5 | 1 |
| 2 years | 13 hours | 11 | 2 | 1 |