A few Mummies have asked me to share our schedule for homeschooling Vee while taking care of Baby Jae. Previously, Vee and I already had a comfortable timing. After Baby Jae arrived, we worked out a new baby-led schedule.
So here’s a typical weekday:
8.30a.m. Vee, Jae & I – Rise and shine
- Play music in background, Vee plays freely
- Put Baby Jae in cot with Tiny Love mobile turned on / fabric books / toys
- Clean Vee up
- Clean myself up
- Sort out laundry for machine wash (including cloth diapers)
- Bath Baby Jae
9.30a.m. Breakfast
10.15a.m. Vee plays (usually cycling or pretend cooking). Baby Jae takes a short nap
10.30.a.m. Lesson time – good morning song, date, weather, relaxation, right brain activities, left brain activities, Montessori work period, good-bye song
(From 3 months old, Baby Jae started sitting on the Bumbo seat to join in our short flashcards and speed reading session. About 5-10 minutes. Otherwise, he naps or plays at the Tiny Love Gymini.)
If anyone is in a grumpy mood, then no lesson. Just play, sing songs or be silly.
12p.m. Lunch. Baby Jae may take another short nap. Else, watch us from the Fisher-Price rocker or play in the play-pen.
1p.m. Vee plays freely (usually cycling or pretend cooking, again!)
1.30p.m. Story time, tune down for nap
2p.m. Vee & Baby Jae nap. If Vee refuses to nap, he’d lie on the bed and rest until time’s up. I either nap or work on the computer.
4p.m. Vee wakes up, has tea-break. Try to squeeze in special one-to-one time with Vee.
4.30p.m. Baby Jae wakes up
- If we missed lesson in the morning, continue from here.
- Montessori work period
- Play with Vee & Baby Jae
- If the kids can play independently, rotate or prepare new homeschooling materials
6.30p.m. Dinner. Baby Jae takes a short nap. Hopefully, hubby’s back to help take care of Vee.
7.30p.m. Vee plays with Daddy & cousins
8p.m. Feed and change Baby Jae. Bedtime routine, put him to bed.
- Organise laundry into wardrobes, prepare cloth diapers for the next day
- Hubby showers Vee
- Hubby plays with Vee
9p.m. Hubby brings Vee for bedtime snack and cleans him up. I grab a quick shower and complete hand wash laundry.
9.30p.m. Hubby completes Vee’s bedtime routine and puts him to bed.
If hubby works late (very often nowadays!) or is outstation, then I need to settle both boys plus myself. Good luck to me.
- Prepare new homeschooling materials, rotate materials, write articles, clear emails, etc. Catch up on the day with hubby. Then zzz…
- Our actual timing has been adjusted to create the mock-up schedule above.
- Usually, there’re unexpected events like oversleeping, one kid waking up too early, Vee wanting to play longer, etc. So we just go with that day’s flow.
- Throughout the day, I breastfeed and change Baby Jae every 2 to 3 hours on demand. I often babywear him. At night, he feeds about every 3 to 5 hours. It’s great that Baby Jae sleeps well and is easily contented. All thanks to doing Shichida pre-natal education with him since second trimester pregnancy.
- Thankfully, we live with extended family where there’s a domestic helper to cook and clean. If there’s no helper, I’d give up blogging at Mummy’s Reviews and pray hard that hubby comes home early to help out.
- Having the boys take a long afternoon nap at about the same time is the MOST important part of my day. Once that’s successful, I get to rest or get some much-needed peace. This retains my sanity.
- Vee’s mid-day nap at 2p.m. is already a routine. So I ensure that Baby Jae catches a morning nap and is awake during the 1 to 2 hours before 2p.m. This way, Jae can fall asleep rather easily by 2p.m.
- Naturally, Vee would want my attention when I need to focus on getting Jae to sleep. From the earliest days, I showed Vee that when baby is soundly asleep, he gets SPECIAL 1-to-1 time with Mummy. The earlier and longer baby sleeps, the more special time he gets. This incentive works very well on him.
To end off, any tantrum-free day is a good day. May you have a great day too! 🙂
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P.S. If you have only 1 toddler at home, here’s our schedule when Vee was 16 months old.
P.P.S. Our latest homeschooling updates are posted at MummysHomeschool.com HERE,
You make it sound so simple and I am now feeling more encouraged to have no.2 🙂
Do you have time to cook, occasionally?
Haha… Catheryn, it’s definitely manageable, especially when baby is cooperative. If Jae and Vee’s sleeping patterns were reversed, I’d be in deep trouble. I cooked for Vee when he was 6 months to 2 years old, only very simple steamed items to mix and match, using electric cooker / steamer / induction cooker with timer. I love timer function — just put the ingredients inside, set it, and move on to other activities. And no fire means I don’t need to watch the stove.
Going to cook for Jae in 1+ month time. Kitchen gadgets help to save time. Btw, I’m not good at cooking, so can only manage very simple items for now. Only babies can “appreciate” my cooking. Ha!
Dear MieVee,
How do you settle your child when you are cooking? Hmm, you mentioned you use kitchen gadgets, but how about the preparation? It takes time right?
Before I returned to my work, I stayed at home with my newborn and find it so difficult to take care of him alone, especially when dealing with housework and cooking! Now I really have phobia being a SAHM. I am planning to have #2 but really scare.
Appreciate if you can advise as I really salute you as a SAHM and still able to home-school you kid so well 🙂
Cheers,
May
Hihi May… Vee was very fussy & clingy as a baby. I’d try to put him in a play-pen to watch me. If he’s in fussy mood, I’d back-carry him (from about 10 months old) with a baby carrier (review is here), then he’d be happy to watch me as I prepare the ingredients and cook.
When he was older and less sticky, I put him in the highchair to watch me. Then as I prepare, I’d let him smell / touch the ingredients to keep him entertained. And also pass him “junk” such as corn leaves, potato / carrot skins to play with. Good for sensory learning too, haha! I sing songs for him too.
Usually, the preparation is done in max 30 minutes. Then let the gadgets do the cooking.
There’s a family helper to help out with the heavy cleaning work and cooking for the adults, so I’m really grateful for that help.
If I’ve to cook for adults and am too stretched for time, I’d consider preparing batches of prepared food and freezing them, then reheat over stove or oven (not microwave). For e.g. baked rice / lasagna / pasta type of western-style meals with many healthy ingredients in one dish.
Some websites:
http://www.myrecipes.com/t/make-ahead/main-dishes/
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipes/easy/make-ahead-meal-recipes
Shall need to start cooking for Baby Jae in 1+ months time. This time, I’d also consider freezing purees for him, though I never did that for Vee (was more free with only 1 baby).
All the best! 🙂
Dear MieVee,
Thank you so much for all you sharings! It definitely does help to boost my gut to give birth to #2. Haha…
I used to freeze puree for my boy also when he was less than 1.5 yo and pass to the child care to warm and feed him (as he disliked munching fruit.) Normally I will prepare by batches during weekend bi weekly. It is quite convenient. Jia you!
Cheers
Thank you for the encouragement too! Hope baby Jae will love eating like his brother, that’ll certainly make my life easier. Ha! 🙂
I really wish I have better time management. Do you have any routine or activity suggestion on how a full time working mom can encourage hyperactive kid to focus?
Hi Vanessa, sorry I missed your message. Hope you and your kid are doing great! Feel free to hop over to my other blog on education: MummysHomeschool.com.