Transitioning your younger children to days without their older siblings
This year my son will be in the 1st grade. It’s a huge transition not only for him but also for my 4 year old daughter who hasn’t yet experienced a full day without him home. There is also the issue that it’s a milestone for my son and I’m worried she will feel left behind.
To ease some of these issues I’ve created a list of special activities to do with my daughter each day to take advantage of the time we will get to spend together. If you’ll have a young one left at home here are a few of my ideas that might help you as well.
- Play School – Have your student start off at home (their room) and load up their school supplies in a backpack. Once they are ready they can walk to school (kitchen table or office desk) to start their day. Give them an assignment of drawing a picture to give to their older sibling when they get home. Have them go to the cafeteria (kitchen) for lunch and serve it on a plastic tray. (They actually carry them at Walmart and are usually around $1.) What I love is that this also gives me the ability to sneak in educational things as well. Like practicing letters and numbers.
- Have a Tea Party (or Truck Party) – We plan on inviting 3 of my daughters friends to join us in their finest princess attire for an all out girly tea party. There will be tiny sandwiches, special treats and apple juice tea. This idea works for boys to. Create a truck course in your living room or back yard and invite friends over to try out the course. Serve food that you’d find at a monster truck rally, hot dogs, nachos, or popcorn.
- Spa Day – No, this isn’t as expensive as it sounds. Even at 4, my daughter is quite the girly girl. She loves to have her nails and toes painted, her hair curled and even some make up. Because my son is not into those things, it’s often hard to find time to squeeze it in so I decided that with my son at school it was the perfect time to make a day of it. My daughter, although dressed, will be able to wear her bathrobe all day and will be able to move from station to station. I plan on starting with hair and make up first then moving on to her nails while she gets to watch her favorite movie. Once she is glamorous she’ll be able to pick the prettiest outfit she has, even if it’s her princess dress up clothes, and has my permission to wear them when we pick up her brother. Not only will she get all this pampering but being able to wear her fanciest clothes in public is not something that happens often.
- A Special Project – My daughter loves crafts and she loves decorating her room. I thought a really great activity would be to combine them both. I have several art canvases in our garage. My idea is to turn one into a ribbon board for her room. All I’ll need is some batting, fabric to cover the canvas, ribbon, and clothes pins. My daughter will be able to pick out the fabric and ribbon. The instructions are quick simple. Lay batting on top of the canvas and then cover that with the fabric. Using a staple gun attach the fabric to the rear of the canvas making sure to pull it taut. You can lay the ribbon in any configuration across the board and will also attach it to the rear of the canvas using the staple gun. That’s it! The clothes pins are used to attach pictures or keepsakes to the ribbon.
I hope these ideas have cause more to flow into your head.
School is hard for everyone, probably harder for us moms, making the most of the time you have with your little ones at home will make the adjustment a little less anxiety ridden.