I have two children who no longer take naps every day, and yet I am loathe to give up that quiet space in the middle of the day – that time when the whole house seems to collectively take a deep breath and get reset for the rest of the day.
At 1:30-2 pm the oldest 3 take turns using the bathroom and picking their age of books to read. Gabe is five, and he sits on the couch for quiet time. I start a timer on the refrigerator, and when it beeps, he can get up, turn it off, and either play outside or do something quiet like Legos or kinetic sand at the table.
Jasmine and Oscar read their books in bed while I feed Ariel and put her to bed. Oscar is 2, and usually falls asleep while he looks at books. Jasmine, at 3, sometimes does as well, but if she can’t sleep, I let her get up once Gabe’s 45 minutes is up.
There have been seasons when we had to work on them staying in bed and staying quiet, but currently that training is paying off and it gives me a chance to read a book, or spend some time with Jesus, or even take a nap myself.
Just because my children don’t take naps anymore doesn’t mean that quiet time needs to stop. It’s valuable for everyone to take a break from each other here in this cabin and be quiet for a while.
I love it so much, I’ll probably still do quiet time when they’re teenagers!
What cutie pies. You may need quiet time just as much when your children are teenagers as you do now.:)
Definitely a sanity saver!
I well remember having quiet time into teenage years. We got to the point that we loved having an hour off of helping Mom with housework in which we could read a book for an hour… and we begged for more. So I’d say the quiet time never needs to stop! 😉