Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Being More Intentional

Over the last month and half since we moved to Cheyenne, Mady and I get to spend TONS of time together.  We haven't found a babysitter yet so Mom can get out a little bit on her own and some of the bible studies through our church haven't started just yet.  (They'll be starting in a few weeks with free childcare and I'm SO excited!)  At times, it can be very tiring spending all day with my little girl and having no outlets for me.  I don't do well with very limited or non-existant social time.  The first 2 weeks went well because we had a lot of different places to explore around Cheyenne.  But as soon as the "new-ness" of it wore off, I began to have a more selfish attitude.  
So to combat that, I decided to be more intentional with Mady each day.  
Since I was a teacher, writing lesson plans comes naturally to me.  I decided that to help me become more intentional, I would write a general lesson plan for our week and what activities we were going to do each day.  Thanks to pinterest and the HUGE amount of toddler websites, I came up with lots of new activities.  Now we don't always do a new activity EVERY day, but I try to do something new at least every other day.  
Sometimes our activity is going to the library or the Children's Village.  
Other times its an art project or a sensory tub.
And sometimes, it's more of a "learning" activity like our Red Day we're planning for this Friday to learn about the color red.

Here's an example of an activity we did last week.  We made a foil river and had lots of fun playing in the water hose and watching ice cubes make their way down the river.





I'm hoping that starting this now with only 1 child, I will be able to continue it somewhat when I have 2.  I know that it will look different and we will have to be more flexible when I have more than 1 little girl around but it's a start. I also hope to incorporate bible lessons in our weekly plan as well.
 I can tell by Mady's behavior and my attitude that being more intentional each day has helped tremendously!

1 comment:

  1. Good idea, Nicole :) I've thought of that recently, but I can't seem to find the time to spend time on Pinterest, etc....I know Kate's schedule will become easier. So perhaps, then....

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