Anyone with B4 littles that have several sibs doing FIAR and BY?

[Heather W]

I'm facing the real possibility that my 2yo is giving up his nap:unsure: . He goes in waves and his nap gets messed up when he is sick which he has been. However, I've noticed he fights it and then falls to sleep and then doesn't go to bed at night nicely. Well, suffice it to say he's likely in transition of some kind to no nap.

Yikes! So, is there anyone out there who has a few older kids doing various things AND still manages to get B4 in there somewhat regularly?

I'm thinking of filling his mommy bucket early in the day with B4 and other fun things so that he will be more content when the older kids need me for school.

One nice thing about this is that we'll do school earlier while he is happier and be done early. Right now we sometimes wait until he's sleeping to do the harder stuff. I won't be able to wait until he's good and cranky and not napping to do school!:lol:

Any ideas on how to fit all that in?

[Jen in OK]

Well, I have no advice since I only have one child right now, but I thought I would go ahead and tell you that I really enjoy your blog. I keep thinking I should leave a comment on it, but I always seem to get sidetracked.:eyes:

[Kisha]

My 2yodss are doing the exact same thing, Heather. It's driving me :crazy:. Rarely do they nap w/out a problem. Today I put them in their rooms at around 11:30/12:00 but they didn't actually go to sleep until 1:00 which made them wake up around 4. And they're both sick right now too. You can imagine how tonight's bedtime ritual went. :eek:

This is what I do. It may not be the best thing but it's all I can to do to survive.

I do FIAR and MOH w/ my dd first thing after breakfast. This is when my mind is the freshest. If I wait until later, they're cranky, I'm cranky, and school just gets pushed off to the next day.

Afterwards, dd does her seatwork while I read the boys a B4FIAR book. They're not really ready for a lot of B4FIAR activities. We're going slow. We probably will do B4FIAR 2-3x a week. We've been on Corduroy for about two weeks.

After that (around 10:00) we get out of the house. It really doesn't matter what we do. Go to the library, mall, the store, for a walk, anywhere but HERE! :lol:

Your dc are older so you probably need more "school" time with them, but I just wanted to commisserate with you and agree that getting work done early is better than later.

[MarieD]

Heather did you ever join up with any of the activity bag swaps? That worked/still works great for my youngest when I have to give attention to oldest' school work.

I do B4 when the oldest is doing independent work. Your plan to do it first sounds great!

[AndreaD]

I have 1 in beyond- 1 in fiar and the 2 yr old that I do b4 with. Here's a few things that work for me- I do Beyond assignments first- usually right at the breakfast table- read the chapter while they are eating, then give oldest his assignments. After breakfast I explain any other things he needs help with- he works pretty independently on math, spelling, grammar etc. if I explain it well first.

After I have the 8 yr old working on his stuff, I'll call the 5 yr old down to do his math and handwriting (takes all of 10 minutes if he works quickly- we use HWT and singapore early bird math) Sometimes the 2 yr old does puzzles or colors in his high chair while we do this- other times he whines at my chair wanting me to hold him lol- Christian is reading pretty well, so we'll play a phonics game or something after that sometimes- just depends on my mood and his.

Then I'll read a b4 title to both the 2 little ones, then the FIAR title to both- my 2 yr old listens well to the FIAR titles- but on days he doesn't he can play with toys while I read it. Then we'll do FIAR discussions/coloring pages etc. and sometimes an b4 activity with the 2 yr old. I keep b4 VERY simple- I don't "row" a book each week with him- but rather just grab something off the shelf each day. I try and plan a few things to do with him each week- though not every day- either something to do along with the book or from the 2nd half of the manual. If I don't write them down- they usually don't get done. :blush:

About this time oldest ds is needing some more help with spelling, history or his beyond assignments - (I explain them first thing, but sometimes we work more on them together). So the 2 younger ones go play while I help him a bit, and then it's lunch time. My 2 yr old is also trying to give up his nap- but no matter what we still have quiet time in the afternoon- so he'll still go to his room for the hour.

Not sure if that helps- we've had to do some juggling around to get something that works- and I'm sure we'll have to juggle around again- just as things get into a good pattern- something always throws a wrench in the works ;)

[Jennifer in SC]

I have a 2yo going through the same thing. He would not take a nap yesterday afternoon, and then crashed at about 4:30. I let him sleep for a bit, but then he was wide awake until almost midnight. :eek:

I have no advice about getting school work in with him awake. I still haven't found an answer to that. :lol

signed,
another admirer of your blog :lol

[Heather W]

Heather did you ever join up with any of the activity bag swaps? That worked/still works great for my youngest when I have to give attention to oldest' school work.

I do B4 when the oldest is doing independent work. Your plan to do it first sounds great!
Well funny you should ask Marie, because believe it or not I was the organizer of the very first one in early 2006.

So, yes I have them and some of those are really good for him and some are not quite yet.

right now he's busy with his own red carpet, but I got a phone call and now I have to corral my older kids!!;)

[Heather W]

Today we did The Red Carpet. We've read it before and enjoyed it a lot when we first got it this summer(thanks again Lauren!), but I knew J would love it and he thoroughly enjoyed racing his own red carpet.

You can see him here (http://www.blogshewrote.blogspot.com)!:)

[Heidi J]

Heather did you ever join up with any of the activity bag swaps?

Care to share?

Z seemed like she was giving up naps a while ago but she will still nap here and there. I find if I can get her down before 1pm and wake her after a little while then she will sleep at night. If she fights it, I usually get her up, unless I need a break. Z loved Red Carpet a few weeks ago. The one day I read it to her 3 or 4 times. What a cute idea with the carpet.

You know what's really sad? J doesn't sleep very much. Some days he skips the morning nap and then take an hour nap in the afternoon, like yesterday. Then he will stay up until 8pm. My older 2 were excellent nappers and would nap whenever and still sleep at night. What happened to the younger 2?

[MarieD]

Care to share?

There is a book on Preschool activities in a bag (I don't know the title, but I think it is something like that). Every ziplock bag is a complete self-guided activity. Heather is correct, some are geared to an older self-guided preschooler, or younger with mom's help.

Someone with the book posts to see if others are interested. Then all who are interested choose an activity and make one for every one in the group. There were 21 in my group, so I made 21 of the same activity and sent them to the coordinator with a check for shipping. The coordinator then, separates them and sends a box to each participant with 21 different activity bags. My youngest hasn't actually used them all. Z would love them! If you could get your hands on the book, they would be easy to make them all yourself. Or you could post and see if anyone has the book and wants to organize another swap??

[CJ]

After our Bible reading and daily text, I do my 2yo's BFIAR first. Then I do my 6yo FIAR and then I work with my 9/11/13yos. This is because of their patience level. The older ones can do independent things longer than my 2yo.

Sometimes my 2yo sits in on the FIAR stories. Sometimes I let him watch a PBS show or video. He also has his flip top tubs that he can choose from. He can only use them during school.

If he needs a helper, I will pull one of the kids to play with him for 15 minutes (use a timer) while I rotate around helping. My dh also leaves later for work and helps me for the first hour or so of school most days. He can do this cause he owns his own used book store and has one employee.

The tubs are:

1. Blocks
wood, lego, duplo, mega, nesting, lincoln logs, tinker toys, bristle blocks, etc.

2. Painting
paint with water, kid watercolor sets, brushes, stamps, paints, squeeze paints, glitter paints, etc.

3. Magnets
look at your craft store for different options, put in a small cookie sheet, also alphabet letters and numbers, I've found Dollar Store magnet sets and puzzles

4. Playdoh
8 cans, kitchen tools - rolling pin, plastic butter knife, tiny tart pans, playdoh kits, cookie cutters, etc.

5. Puzzles
flat carboard preschool type, wood with handled pieces type, block 6 sided type, etc.

6. Manipulatives
lacing cards, plastic teddy bears with cups, dice and cup, word tiles, paddle ball, bubbles (blow into tub or shower stall), Mini Mr. Potato head with costume kits, cheap camera for taking pictures, binoculars to spy on neighbors

7. Music
hand drum, tambourine, triangle, maracas, scrapers, bells, recorder, tiny keyboard, cassette player with tapes and headphones, castanets, rhythm sticks, sandpaper blocks, clave', slide whistle, etc.

8. Water play
put this tub inside bathtub or kiddie pool or kitchen floor on a towel. fill with cups and stainers and ladles and tiny .99 travel spray bottles. Food coloring adds fun for a surprise once in a while (don't keep in tub).

9. Drawing
colored pencils, washable markers, paper, gel pens, stencils, chalk, how to draw books, stickers, etc.

10. Games
Go fish, Old Maid, Flashcards, Concentration, Hi Ho Cherry-O, Candy Land, Colorforms, etc.

:D

[Rosanna]

My 2 year old is also on the no nap bandwagon! But my biggest struggle is she wants to "do school" with the same types of activities as my almost 5 yr old... we do Bible memory and Bible stories during breakfast which she participates in, and then she does "math" during math time with our math manipulatives (right now math-u-see blocks and counting bears with a scale and matching color cups- I let her play or direct her to try a specific task like find 3 yellow bears) we read our B4 and FIAR books together then while my son works on phonics or copywork she can "write" in her notebook, color, etc. We aren't doing a ton right now, so we are done within an hour at the most an hour and 1/2, with time for playing together doing work around the house, outside time, play dates, etc.

[Jen in OK]

One story thing I have done with ds (3) is to make magnets. For some reason, he is OBSESSED with having magnets of the characters of stories we read or shows we watch. So I find pictures on the internet or scan the pages from the book, cut them out, contact paper them, and slap a magnet on the back. He will act out the story with them, make them do new stuff, and usually his WonderPets magnets come into the story at some point.:lol: