Every Child Matters
How To Get More Quiet Time
Non-screen ideas for children aged 2–6 during the shelter in place and after!
I am a working mum, and my two girls decided to stop napping at the beginning of the shelter in place. My husband and I quickly started thinking about how we could transition from nap time to quiet time so that we could have some non-interrupted focus time at work during the week and time for ourselves during the weekend.
It worked a treat and has been invaluable. Ready to reclaim a bit of time for yourself? Here’s what we did.
Set Expectations
For this to work effectively two things are important: that the kids understand the concept and that the parents are consistent.
The easiest way by far is to start building in quiet time as soon as the signs of giving up naps start appearing. However, it is possible to introduce it at any stage.
- Make a daily schedule that includes quiet time.
Defining the activities before and after quiet time will help settle the concept in the child’s mind. Our girls used to nap after lunch so we put quiet time in after lunch with an activity planned right after.
