How do you organize your day?

[tripmom]

I currently watch seven children - three 3-year-olds, two 2-year-olds, 1 18 month old, and a 6 month old infant. I feel like I'm constantly either preparing meals, bottles, or doing dishes while the kids are running wild. There's got to be a way to be more organized. I want to do more activities with the three year olds, but how do I do that with the younger ones - how do I keep them occupied.

Any advice you "experts" have will be appreciated. My current situation is driving me nuts!

Cindy in NE

[tbtsmiller]

Our Daily Activities

8:00 Breakfast

8:30 Circle time
Work on ABC’s & 123’s
Sing songs
Work on signing

9:00 Diaper Check (of course all smelly diapers need not wait for a diaper check.)
Children under 1yrs old, take a morning nap
Children over 2yrs old, do preschool

10:00 Free Time

11:00 Diaper Check (of course all smelly diapers need not wait for a diaper check.)

11:30 Lunch

12:00 Story time and down for afternoon nap ( I do the dishes during nap time.)

3:00 Diaper Check (of course all smelly diapers need not wait for a diaper check.)

3:30 Afternoon Snack

4:00 Game time
~ Games we play ~
Matching game
Dance party
Shaving Cream Fun
Silly Putty
Edible play dough
Make-Up Party
Flying Carpet
Building Forts
Hide & Seek

4:45 Cleaning up and going home

[DianneM]

Good schedule Becky. Cindy, might also arrange activities so the 3 year olds could help the 2 year olds. It may sound like a stretch but at that age they usually are pleased to know they can be a help.
Dianne

[savvymomma]

TBTSMILLER - LOVED seeing your daily outline! Thanks for sharing it!

[faithsg]

... I had a whole play room of things to do, and we used the LR floor and DR table (games, coloring, play dough, etc.) too. We also had an outdoor playground.

Free play filled most of our day. Because there were so many options of things to do, it kept them busy and happy. I didn't use TV at all. I figured they prob get enuf at home in the evenings and wkends.

I kept menus simple, so preparing lunch didn't take long.

I plan to open a playschool in my home this fall for 3-5 y.o's.. Will structure it w/ circle time (themed around a letter of the week) which will include lots of pre-K skills such as letters, numbersw, colors, shapes, calendar time, book with title/theme relating to letter, show and tell relating to letter, etc.

Will have three 20-minute rotating centers (2 or 3 kids @ each) with games, coloring sheets, arts and crafts, play dough, free play, etc. Snack, outdoor time, closing circle (what did you like about today, good-bye song).

FaithSG

~ FaithSG

[raiundazan]

Originally Posted by DianneM

Good schedule Becky. Cindy, might also arrange activities so the 3 year olds could help the 2 year olds. It may sound like a stretch but at that age they usually are pleased to know they can be a help.
Dianne

True! at that age, they feel honored to do something like its some sort of being responsible. I really dont know where they get that from but it really amazes me to see the kids try to be so helpful. Of course, keep them away from tasks that they can't handle, or else, you'd end up doing more than less