Daily Themes and Nightly Family Activities
Hey out there! It's been a minute since I've done a blog post, but rest assured, I'm trying my hand at it once again!
Each day of the week we have a daily "theme" and each night we try and do some type of family activity. Now, do they always happen? No, of course not. BUT, I always feel really really good when they do.
Here is a small break down of what we've got going on right now...
Sunday- Slow Down Sunday
On this day we try and just relax, watch movies or tv shows and just be together and literally
almost do nothing.
Monday-Make it Monday/Family Game Night
On Monday's during the day I try and have a few crafts for the boys to do. We craft as much as I can with them because some days they love it, some days they really dislike it.
We also try and do a family game night after my husband gets home from work. We usually have dinner, and get the boys ready for bed before playing. Our favorite games include Pop the Pig, Uno, Monopoly Junior,and Operation.
We let our 2 year old play as much as he can or we let him "help" us. We're working on patience and taking turns so, sometimes we end up in a bit of a meltdown stage. We do have a game called "Seek-a-boo" that is for kids 18 months+ that is a memory game. It promotes language development, (our 2 year old has some speech delays) gross motor skills (he is just now becoming not delayed in this area with the help of physical therapy) and of course memory.
Tuesday-Tinker Tuesday/ TV Show Night
Tuesdays are "Tinker Tuesdays." This is where I fill a tray with supplies or give them (specifically my 5 year old) a task to complete (i.e. build a robot, etc.) and watch them figure it out. I will explain more on this in another post.
We also do a TV show this night. Sometimes it's a show like American Idol (our 2 year old loves music, and our 5 year old loves watching singing shows) or an old school show like Full House. We do this for an hour or so before the boys' bedtime. We don't usually watch TV and when we do it's not usually together (there is only so much Sesame Street and PJ Masks etc., that this mama can tolerate) so this is just a time for us to spend some time cuddling and just being together. My boys have been absolutely loving this.
Wednesday-Water (or wiggle) Wednesday/Craft Night
We do water play during the day, or some type of movement play (dancing and singing, obstacle courses, etc.) so they can burn off some energy. Water play is my favorite, but obviously my boys move to be running around and moving, so I do what works for all of us and what we're in the mood for! Water play could be as simple as letting them take a "fun" bath during the day complete with paint, or specific toys, or it could be giving them a bin of water and letting them explore with it. Currently my 5 year old is obsessed with figuring out if certain things float or sink in water.
Craft night is only different than Make it Monday because my husband is home and can be involved.
Thursday-Thinking Thursday/ Lego Night
Thinking Thursday consists of science experiments and talking about what he (my 5 year old) thinks will happen and (me) taking notes. It could also be a totally open ended activity where I give him supplies and tell him to build something. The difference from Tuesdays is I won't tell him what to build or how to do it, he has to figure it out for himself. This can be frustrating for him because he needs step by step instructions most of the time, but it's something that we're working on.
Lego night is just what it sounds like. Sometimes we have a specific goal in mind (build a robot, build a car, etc) and other nights we build whatever we want. Legos are one of my favorite activities because the possibilities are endless!
Friday-Fidget or Fun Friday/ Video Game Night During the day we do some type of movement games/play and be crazy for the simple fact that we have no yard and sometimes letting the boys have structured crazy play is much safer (my boys will end up thinking they're WWE Superstars unsupervised when they need to be crazy, soooooo this makes is safer, haha)
Video game night is where we just relax and play some Mario games and hang out. Video games are obviously more my husband's thing and our 5 year olds thing, but we do it together as a family. Sometimes I'll sit on the couch with the 2 year old and we'll read books or color and let the other two have their fun, but usually we at least pretend to play the games :).
Saturday-Sensory Saturday/Family Movie Night
Sensory Saturday is where we either do sensory bins, work on gross motor skills, etc. I have a sensory seeker (5 year old) and he is what most people would just refer to as a "wild child" he is almost constantly in motion and when he is "calm" we make up for it in a few minutes when he goes into a system overload. On these days I have to be careful that neither one of the boys goes into the overload with too many sensory activities, so if I plan on more than one thing I tend to space them out and give them a break.
Anyone that knows me knows I have always done family movie night, but it used to be once a month because I would always go. all. out. I would do decorations, special foods and snacks, have activities planned......and then one day my husband told me (in the nicest way possible) that he and the boys don't even care sometimes if I go all out or not--it's the movie the usually just care about. NOW, that being said, I still do the all out crazy movie nights occasionally, but instead of doing once a month movie night, we do once a week. I honestly do the movie night monthly more for myself than anything because I really do like to plan them. It's like planning a party once a month, and I LOVE to party plan.
Well, that is a little glimpse of what we do in our household daily/weekly. I hope it can inspire or encourage you to try and do something like it, but remember that I said these things don't *always* happen, because, you know, life...but they do happen most of the time.
Leave a comment if you have any fun family traditions that you have!
Each day of the week we have a daily "theme" and each night we try and do some type of family activity. Now, do they always happen? No, of course not. BUT, I always feel really really good when they do.
Here is a small break down of what we've got going on right now...
Sunday- Slow Down Sunday
On this day we try and just relax, watch movies or tv shows and just be together and literally
almost do nothing.
Monday-Make it Monday/Family Game Night
On Monday's during the day I try and have a few crafts for the boys to do. We craft as much as I can with them because some days they love it, some days they really dislike it.
We also try and do a family game night after my husband gets home from work. We usually have dinner, and get the boys ready for bed before playing. Our favorite games include Pop the Pig, Uno, Monopoly Junior,and Operation.
We let our 2 year old play as much as he can or we let him "help" us. We're working on patience and taking turns so, sometimes we end up in a bit of a meltdown stage. We do have a game called "Seek-a-boo" that is for kids 18 months+ that is a memory game. It promotes language development, (our 2 year old has some speech delays) gross motor skills (he is just now becoming not delayed in this area with the help of physical therapy) and of course memory.
Tuesday-Tinker Tuesday/ TV Show Night
Tuesdays are "Tinker Tuesdays." This is where I fill a tray with supplies or give them (specifically my 5 year old) a task to complete (i.e. build a robot, etc.) and watch them figure it out. I will explain more on this in another post.
We also do a TV show this night. Sometimes it's a show like American Idol (our 2 year old loves music, and our 5 year old loves watching singing shows) or an old school show like Full House. We do this for an hour or so before the boys' bedtime. We don't usually watch TV and when we do it's not usually together (there is only so much Sesame Street and PJ Masks etc., that this mama can tolerate) so this is just a time for us to spend some time cuddling and just being together. My boys have been absolutely loving this.
Wednesday-Water (or wiggle) Wednesday/Craft Night
We do water play during the day, or some type of movement play (dancing and singing, obstacle courses, etc.) so they can burn off some energy. Water play is my favorite, but obviously my boys move to be running around and moving, so I do what works for all of us and what we're in the mood for! Water play could be as simple as letting them take a "fun" bath during the day complete with paint, or specific toys, or it could be giving them a bin of water and letting them explore with it. Currently my 5 year old is obsessed with figuring out if certain things float or sink in water.
Craft night is only different than Make it Monday because my husband is home and can be involved.
Thursday-Thinking Thursday/ Lego Night
Thinking Thursday consists of science experiments and talking about what he (my 5 year old) thinks will happen and (me) taking notes. It could also be a totally open ended activity where I give him supplies and tell him to build something. The difference from Tuesdays is I won't tell him what to build or how to do it, he has to figure it out for himself. This can be frustrating for him because he needs step by step instructions most of the time, but it's something that we're working on.
Lego night is just what it sounds like. Sometimes we have a specific goal in mind (build a robot, build a car, etc) and other nights we build whatever we want. Legos are one of my favorite activities because the possibilities are endless!
Friday-Fidget or Fun Friday/ Video Game Night During the day we do some type of movement games/play and be crazy for the simple fact that we have no yard and sometimes letting the boys have structured crazy play is much safer (my boys will end up thinking they're WWE Superstars unsupervised when they need to be crazy, soooooo this makes is safer, haha)
Video game night is where we just relax and play some Mario games and hang out. Video games are obviously more my husband's thing and our 5 year olds thing, but we do it together as a family. Sometimes I'll sit on the couch with the 2 year old and we'll read books or color and let the other two have their fun, but usually we at least pretend to play the games :).
Saturday-Sensory Saturday/Family Movie Night
Sensory Saturday is where we either do sensory bins, work on gross motor skills, etc. I have a sensory seeker (5 year old) and he is what most people would just refer to as a "wild child" he is almost constantly in motion and when he is "calm" we make up for it in a few minutes when he goes into a system overload. On these days I have to be careful that neither one of the boys goes into the overload with too many sensory activities, so if I plan on more than one thing I tend to space them out and give them a break.
Anyone that knows me knows I have always done family movie night, but it used to be once a month because I would always go. all. out. I would do decorations, special foods and snacks, have activities planned......and then one day my husband told me (in the nicest way possible) that he and the boys don't even care sometimes if I go all out or not--it's the movie the usually just care about. NOW, that being said, I still do the all out crazy movie nights occasionally, but instead of doing once a month movie night, we do once a week. I honestly do the movie night monthly more for myself than anything because I really do like to plan them. It's like planning a party once a month, and I LOVE to party plan.
Well, that is a little glimpse of what we do in our household daily/weekly. I hope it can inspire or encourage you to try and do something like it, but remember that I said these things don't *always* happen, because, you know, life...but they do happen most of the time.
Leave a comment if you have any fun family traditions that you have!
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