Daily Winter Schedule with 3 under 4

Our Winter Schedule

Our winter schedule comes down to, in short form, something like this: (I will go into more details later in the post!)

• 7 AM: Wake up
  • I nurse my 11-month-old first
• 7:30 AM: Breakfast
  • We usually eat eggs, toast, and fruit, or cereal, or pancakes/waffles.
• 8:00 AM: Kids play while I clean up the kitchen, start laundry, fold clothes or do the small tidying up chores.
• 9:00 or 9:30 AM: My youngest starts his first nap of the day (if all goes well and he is tired, sometimes we wait until 10 or put him down with the other two later if he does not show any signs of tiredness!)
  • If we have errands to run, we do them right after breakfast or later in the afternoon so accommodate for nap times!
• 10 AM: I prepare a snack for my older two (3 years and 2 years)
  • More on snacks later!
• 11 AM: Read books before naptime ( I limit to 4 or 6 so we are not reading forever!)
  • Sometimes my youngest is awake by now, so he nurses while we read to save time and get extra snuggles with all of my kids
• 11:15 AM: Get kids down for a nap, tuck them in, kisses and hugs, etc
• 11:30 AM: I am usually nursing my youngest by now since he has awakened from his morning nap.
  • If he is not awake, I take some time to start working on my daily blog tasks.
• 12 PM: Youngest snacks with me for lunch, plays for a while while I continue to work on my blog (paying close attention to him, of course!)
• 12:30 PM: Continue to work on the blog as long as my kids are asleep
  • My 3-year-old boy often sleep 1.5 to 2 hours for his nap
  • My 2-year-old girl varies anywhere from 1 hour to 2.5 hours, depending on the kind of night she has had.
• 1 PM: Snack or have a light lunch. If my kids are not awake yet, I give my youngest some food and prepare him for his second nap of the day.
• 1:30 PM: Most times, my 3 and 2-year-old are awake and ready to go.
  • They need a little time to adjust from sleep and often want to be snuggled, held, or hugged.
  • I take a little time to finish up my blogging tasks before turning off my computer and being just mom again.
• 2 PM: I often give them a light lunch/healthy snack around this time to tide them over until supper-time.
  • My youngest is now down for his second nap of the day if he shows signs of being tired.
• 2:30 PM: The other kids play and get creative as they do ( I will give you a list of activities we often do later!)
• 3 PM: If it is nice outside, we do our best to go out in play in the fresh country air and bright sun
  • Sometimes they can be outside by themselves for short periods of time
  • I hang by the windows to keep an eye on them, especially if I am waiting for my youngest to wake up from his nap
• 3:30 PM: Youngest is awake and ready to be nursed again.
  • If I am nursing, I ask the others to come inside until he is finished
• 4 PM: Kids play outside or inside depending on the weather; I start supper around this time
• 5 PM: We prepare for supper, I like to eat around 5:15 or 5:30 so we don’t get a super late start on bedtime.
  • Of course, life happens every so often and we eat later, like 6 or 6:30. You have to roll with it and do what you can!
• 6 PM: Clean up supper, including dishes, table, floor, etc
  • Hubby and I usually take turns cleaning up so the other can play with the kids and help them pick up their toys from the day
• 6:30 PM: Start thinking about baths and getting ready for bed. The earlier we start, the earlier our kids get to bed (if all goes well)
  • Read about our nighttime routine in detail on Mom Life Happy Life!
• 7 PM: Baths, brush teeth, put on PJ’s, read stories, say prayers, bed
  • We try to keep it in that order so the kids know what to expect and recognize that sleep is coming!
  • It usually takes until about 8 PM to get them asleep. If we are having a difficult time, sometimes 9 PM.
  • Like every real family, finding the balance with sleep schedules is hard, especially when you have multiple young children.
  • We do our best and are flexible enough to change if something truly isn’t working.

Take Note – a typical winter schedule…

So, here is the short version (wait, what? Sorry, I have a bad habit of overexplaining EVERYTHING!) of how our schedule works.

Keep in mind this is when we are home all day, have nothing pressing to do, and are on a fairly normal nighttime schedule as well.

This is also our typical winter schedule. It is much harder to do outside activities with 3 young children when you are by yourself at home. I also love using the winter months to catch up and work on blogging things since it is so cold!

Winter Nap Schedules

As I mentioned a little bit before, our napping schedules are slightly different based on each child. Their sleeping needs and routines are somewhat the same, but they need different amounts of sleep, so it works out (somehow!) with a little bit of shuffling and work.

3-year-old nap schedule

He needs about 13 hours of sleep a day (including nighttime hours). He takes up to a 2-hour nap during the day and usually gets about 10-11 hours of sleep at night.

He goes down for a nap around 11:30 AM. If he goes down much later than that, we have a hard time getting him to bed on time for the night.

2-year-old nap schedule

Right now, our little girl is having a hard time falling asleep at night at a consistent time. We think she is a definite night-owl, but we know she needs her sleep. She consistently neds about 13.5 hours of sleep/day.

Her naptime is the same as her brothers, about 11:30 AM. Her napping schedule is getting much better so I am hoping that she will fall into a nighttime rhythm soon.

11-month-old nap schedule

Our baby boy is going down for two naps a day, one about 9:30-10 AM and another at 2-2:30 PM. He will sleep anywhere from 1 hour to 2.5 hours for a nap. Usually, the morning nap is longer than the afternoon nap.

He needs about 14 hours a day, so these naps definitely help him stay on track.

Types of meals/snacks we have

I am becoming the type of mom who actively takes note of the food that my children consume. Not a bad thing, but it does require more prep and more thought for each meal and snack that we eat.

Some of the options are more expensive than popular kids snacks, but it is worth it to feed our kids healthier alternatives

Our typical choices for snack-time:

• Celery and peanut butter (and raisins if I’m feeling fun)
• crackers and peanut butter
• Betty Lou’s Fruit + Veggie bar (my favorite quick go-to healthy snack at the moment!)
• Homemade pancakes (I love this recipe!) with peanut butter (no syrup). Can you tell my kids like peanut butter? If there is an allergy try using almond or hazelnut spread instead.
• Sliced peppers/carrots/broccoli/celery and homemade ranch
• Cheese slices (we love the sharp cheddar from Organic Valley)
• Trail Mix that has a good amount of seeds, nuts, and fruit in it.
• Apple slices with peanut butter
• Kiwi, grapes, or most any fruit
• Turkey slices with cheese and crackers or whole wheat yeast-free bread.
• Homemade granola bars (this recipe is the best I’ve used, and I modify it to add the things we like)
• Chips (low salt or salt-free) and mild salsa
• Canned beans with a little cheese in them (often I use this for a light lunch)

Mealtimes have been more focused on getting more fruits and veggies as well. I find that we are all more happy, healthy, and pleasant when we eat well. Makes sense, right?

My typical take on meal-time food:

Most every meal I make is from scratch, with frozen or fresh produce. About once a week, we splurge and do take-out or a really quick meal like frozen pizza, especially when mama is tired!

• 1 or 2 proteins
  • If we are having tacos, I will add in beans for a second protein often
• 1-3 vegetables
  • I really like combining your earthy veggies, like carrots, green beans, and potatoes, or mixing broccoli, cauliflower and squash together
  • Often we will eat a salad as well as a cooked vegetable, like corn, peas, or green beans
• 1 fruit
  • Since we eat fruit often for a snack, so I sometimes don’t do it during a meal
  • We don’t really eat dessert that often, but every once in a while we will have some cookies, cake or ice cream to celebrate something!
• 1-2 grains
  • I don’t always include a grain, but we often have some sort of homemade whole-wheat yeast-free bread
  • We do love our pasta, so organic pasta makes our meal yummy!

Winter Schedule Daily Activities

Having appropriate and energy-grabbing activities during the winter can be challenging. I know because I’m there. When the days are long and gray and rainy/snowy, it can be hard to find good activities for your kids.

Disclaimer: I kind of force my children to be creative by giving them time to play without the TV on, iPads, or too many toys. I also play with them at least once a day, but not all the time because I don’t want to become their entertainer. They need to know how to entertain their own playtime.

I also pack most of their toys away in sacks in a closet. Every couple of months or so, we switch toys out. The kids love this because they forget what they had and it’s like getting a new set of toys every time! Got that hack and a bunch of others from my mom.

Here are some ideas based on what we usually do:

• My kids love to play farm – cows, barns, tractors, semis, etc
• My daughter is big into her baby dolls right now – so we learn how to take care of babies the right way
• These cups from Amazon are a fantastic cheap toy – there are so many ways to use them it’s awesome!
• Drawing/Coloring – my toddlers love Water Wows and coloring books on any kind. The educational ones are a plus.
• Build tents or forts with the couch cushions.
• Create things from cardboard boxes
• Sometimes watch a show (about 30 minutes worth)
• Sing and play on my piano keyboard
• We love reading!
• If the weather is nice (above 40 degrees), going outside and playing with wagons and trikes.

Summer is different because more things happen in the summer, especially for families with young children who don’t have school things yet.

More picnics, family outings, longer daytime hours, it is nicer outside, there is more work to be done, etc.

I rely on my winter schedule to get my kids on good sleeping patterns, and often have to reteach them once summer is over since our daily schedule is not as predictable. So it goes!

How does your summer schedule differ from your winter schedule?

7 Tips for keeping a daily schedule

Here are my top tips for keeping a daily schedule:

• Be flexible – not that I haven’t mentioned that yet!
• Be willing to change – your schedule and life will never be the same all the time
• Find ways to make your schedule fit your family and be fun for you
• Make a large printout of your schedule to hang on a wall somewhere or in your command center for reference
• If you find your toddlers having trouble with a transition, you might want to make a picture-based schedule for them
• Adjust the schedule when nap times or frequencies change so you can keep up with what works
• Prepare your kids for a different type of day the day before so they know what to expect

Keep A Winter Schedule!

Keeping a schedule in the winter really helps me stay somewhat sane as a SAHM. My kids are young, active, and often into everything!

While no schedule is going to be perfect and work the best every time, it is super helpful to have some sort of routine in place. It helps my kids be aware of what to do when and gives them a predictable, safe day.

Plus, it helps mama know what to do next, too, just in case you forget 😀 No judging. Mama brain is a very real thing around here!

So get to it, and create a wonderful day for you and your family!

Comment below your suggestions and questions!