Structure

So for the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to have more structured time with my wee one. We call it learning time- and there are four categories: Music Time, Story Time, Exploration and Structured Play. It hasn't worked out at all, how I had originally expected it too, which is fine. It has been wonderful for us though. The original idea was to fit all four of those categories into the morning and into the afternoon, but with chores and errands, it hasn't worked in the afternoon yet. In the morning, we do at least two of the activities and sometimes three, but we've yet to do all 4. Again, I am fine with this- I knew I'd have to do some tweaking. After we do the morning activities, it's time for a nap.

The main reason for trying to have more structure in our day it to help Caleb learn structure for one, to help him recognize time a little and help him get on a better sleeping schedule. It has worked for that purpose. The first week, he did a lot better with taking naps. A couple of days, he would still only sleep for half an hour or so, but other times, he would sleep for a good hour and a half or more. One day last week, he slept for 2 hours!

Another reason was to help me feel like I was doing all I can to help Caleb learn about and explore his environment. It was fun coming up with signs we'd use during the week, songs we'd sing, book subjects and then coming up with the physical activities. Then he has free time, too to explore, which he's been doing.

Since it's easy to imagine music and story time, I'll give some examples of things that we've done for Exploration and Structured Play time. Exploration included activities like playing with cooked spaghetti- which he loved!!! (though he did get some stuck in his throat which activated his gag reflux which caused him to vomit which ended that activity which made him cry- but we played for awhile, we talked about (and when I say "we", really, I mean "I" in this instance) how slimy the noodles are, the color, the length, what you can do with them, etc. Another activity we did was go outside and play with bubbles. I blew bubbles, he looked at them and followed them with his eyes first. Then he'd try to get them with his hands. We talked about the colors, the shape, etc. These were fun activities that we both enjoyed. We'll continue to do them.

Structured play activities include things like building with blocks and letting him knock them down, making music by banging on different things to make and hear different sounds, and playing with a ball.

It really has been fun and even though we've never done all four at one time- I kind of follow his lead. And we enjoy our structured time together. We also go for walks, run errands, do chores and have other play times, dance sessions, etc.

Things might change a little this week as I may be changing the times that he eats- which will affect the time we'd been doing the activities, which will affect when he naps, etc. For example, learning time started around 9 for the past couple of weeks and then he'd go down for a nap around 10 or 10:30 (unless I couldn't get him to take a nap then). Well, now, since I'm trying to give him more structured eating times, we might have to move that back. The past 2 days, he's been getting up at 5 am to eat and then he'd go back to sleep for a little while. Then he'd nurse again 9 (I'm trying to nurse him every 4 hours- which has been kind of difficult the past couple of days- so I don't want to change too much and let it still be somewhat led by him (meaning that I don't want to alter his natural schedule too much- hopefully, eventually, he'll start sleeping past 5 eventually). Right now, he still only eats two solid meals a day, which is fine for him. We'll increase as he's ready to.

Anyway, it's been fun figuring out a schedule, coming up with very casual "lesson plans" and teaching my little boy. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up the momentum and continue this (altering as necessary).