Creating Rhythms To Your Week as a Stay at Home Mom

Once you have your Job Description written and Daily Routine in place, I suggest creating a Weekly Rhythm. This is going to be when you choose what days of the week you want to go grocery shopping or take your child to outings outside of the home.

An outing does not need to be anything fancy or expensive. Even a trip to the grocery store can be a fun learning opportunity if presented correctly. I used to sit Anika in front of the cart and talk to her the whole time. She’d help me check things off the list. We’d look at the colors of the fruit together, count them as we put them in our bags. If she cooperated with me she got to ride the mechanical horse outside for 25 cents and she couldn’t have been more thrilled.

Don’t feel pressured to put your child in every baby or toddler class out there or plan big expensive outings or activities. Enjoy this sweet time before they go to school when you are free. Your days are yours to do entirely whatever you want to with your child. You are in a wonderful bubble together. This time is fleeting. Don’t feel pressured to do things for fear of them being left behind or not having the advantages of other children.

Your child does not need a lot of classes of any sort at this age. They need to be allowed to explore their environment with you as their guide. Observe them and see what makes them light up when they are given time and space to play. What are their passions and what puts them in their own little flow state. You will see it early on if your child is given time to just be and you watch for it. Later on when they are ready, seek extracurriculars in those specific areas. Anika has been passionate about drawing and art in general from a young age. I fostered this by providing her with her own “art corner” in our playroom. A cart of drawers full of simple supplies she could use for her creations. I encouraged her love of art. The majority of the framed pictures in our home are now her masterpieces. I waited until she asked for it and when she did, signed her up for a local art class.

Activity Ideas

There are so many incredible free resources to put into your weekly routines and here’s some ways to find them.

The Library

Start at the library. As any new parent, staying at home or working, one of the first stops on your list needs to be the library. Besides the obvious reason (free books) there is so much more to offer. Various forms of media are one example. Our library has tons of DVD’s, music CDs and audiobooks. It also offers an app that has a huge selection of downloadable books and audiobooks. There are activities to take your child to on weekdays and family activities on the weekend. Storytime’s, craft hours, STEAM club, etc. Most libraries also offer passes to local museums that make admission free or drastically reduce the price. And even if your local library isn’t great, check out neighboring towns. Although you most likely won’t be able to check out books, they will have free activities and events that you can attend or for a minimal fee you can join that library too.

Playgrounds

Playgrounds are everywhere. There are town playgrounds, school playgrounds. Kids need to run, play and blow off steam. It’s a perfect combination.

Parks and Rec

I’d also check out the town Parks and Recreation department and see what their calendar has to offer. Things like free family programming; a downtown trick or treat, a holiday festival, a huge Easter egg hunt…the list is long. Just like the library you don’t have to only go to your town’s Parks and Rec, check out what other area Parks and Rec’s have to offer too.

Get Outside

Another free option is to get outside and see what’s around. For example local hiking and walking trails or just a walk around the neighborhood going at your two-year old’s pace. You could kill two hours doing this if you just let them lead and see what they find. Get outside as much as possible. I don’t like to be cold and we live in New England. I do find though if I suck it up and we all just get outside, even for 30 minutes a day we are better because of it.

Local Playgroups

Local free playgroups are another great choice. I know MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) are big in a lot of areas and community centers often offer free playgroups too. Although our town doesn’t have its own community center there is one a couple of towns over. Check out what other towns nearby have to offer too. Anika and I discovered the community center playgroup a few towns over when she was three months old and we began attending a baby playgroup and continued to access their playgroups right until she went to kindergarten. We both always looked forward to socializing.

If there are no community centers in your area, look for local parent groups. The town we spent many years living in had a group for parents with preschoolers in our school district. We were a giant built in support system for each other. When I had Jacob we had meals for two weeks because this group organized a meal train for us. I know I was lucky to have this and it might not be the norm, but if you google and search Facebook I’m sure you might find something similar. Or start your own group using Facebook! Create a group there for stay at home parents in your area. Start by meeting up at the playground with each other once a week and see how quickly it grows. Stay at home parents are out there and we are all desperate to hang out and talk to another adult for five minutes.

Resources Specific to Your Area

And finally check out resources specific to your area. I live in a semi-rural college town. Because of this I have the advantage of having some great free or cheap community resources offered by the college that others in different towns may not. People living in more urban areas are going to have resources that I wouldn’t have. Get out there and explore your area. Ask around. Go to your town or city hall and see if they can direct you.  Google stuff. I found many online resources that directed me to opportunities just by googling “stay at home parent activities” with my town name.

Creating your Weekly Rhythm

Now you have some ideas of things to do when you get out of the house, I want you to take some time to sit down and create a formal rhythm to your week.

Step 1: Write the days of the week

Grab a piece of paper and write the days of the week from top to bottom.

Step 2: Choose your Activities

Using the suggestions listed above find the schedules for activities in your town. 100 percent start with the library. If the only activity you take your child to is storytime, that’s enough. Fill those structured schedule activities in on the days that they happen

Step 3: Choose an Errand Day

Pick a day of the week to do your grocery shopping, swing by the post office, or drop off Amazon returns at UPS. This will be your outing with the kids for the day. I cannot stress enough how if presented the right way a trip to the grocery store or post office is one of the funniest things your child has ever done. Jacob still absolutely loves the post office. If you allow yourself to slow down, point out things to your kids and let them point out things to you along the way you will be amazed at how much there is to do and how fun this can be for everyone.

Step 4: Fill in the blank space

With the days you have remaining choose if you want to have a theme to any of them. For example we have gone through periods of time where we would have playground day, so the outing would be to alternate through area playgrounds on a specific day each week. Sometime in the summer you could schedule a beach day, where you check out different beaches in your area if that’s available to your region or you could have a hike day where once a week you find a kid friendly hike to check out. Maybe you want to set up a weekly play date with a friend with kids your kids ages. Remember though, it’s ok if there is blank space. Don’t feel like you have to cram stuff into every second of your day.

Step 5: Formalize it

Type this thing up and stick it to the fridge. This will keep you grounded and remind you of your plans when it’s 5AM in the morning and you barely slept last night but somehow your child has the energy of a border collie (aka, a lot)  and you are wondering how the heck you are going to make it to rest time.

Here’s a big old disclaimer to all the above information. Please, feel free at any point to throw out the whole schedule and daily routine and do whatever you want for that particular day. The point of it is to provide you with the structure should you need it, but not to chain you to it. I want you to enjoy all the freedom and flexibility you have as a stay at home parent so if that means if it’s a particularly gorgeous day outside blowing off grocery shopping day for an impromptu trip to the beach and ice cream stand, DO IT!!

Sample Weekly Schedule