The one quiet time activity that I love for children in a childcare environment is reading a book, not puzzles or looking through a family picture album but reading a book or several books. Children are naturally drawn to stories.
From infancy, children are stimulated with stories, yes, from in the womb. I loved reading to my own children when they were in my belly. Children assimilate night time stories with bedtime. No wonder when they read stories while on their cots, it helps them to rest. In my years of working with children, they don’t want to sleep, but after scanning several books’ pages, they fall asleep or rest for at least thirty minutes. Don’t worry about their comprehension of the words; they will read the stories the way you told the story. Their vocabularies and cognition increase with each book read to them. Leave the books out and allow them to make use of their imagination (silently). Here the child is reading, Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, which I read to all the children earlier.
Yes, children sleep less as they get older; however, caregivers will admit they get time to tackle other chores when a child gets at least thirty minutes of rest.
What can thirty minutes without children at your heel accomplish?
- email to parents
- newsletters
- planned lessons
- washing the dishes
- a load of laundry done (there is always soiled bedding to wash)
- wiping the floors (with COVID cleaning is endless)
- making snacks
- completing an InstaCart order (there is a constant need for food)
- paying bills
- making appointments
- relaxing
At times there are no reasons to outline why we need children to rest – we just need to get off our feet.
xoxo – Miss Sue
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