I'm attempting to try to teach Karsyn to play a little more independently. Several of my friends have their kids do something they call "room time" where they play for a specified period of time in their rooms. I am trying to talk Karsyn into doing this and telling her how "fun" it will be. I tried to start with 15 minutes, but within 2 minutes she was hanging over the baby gate I put up and screaming for me to come in and play with her. I've even dropped our dog Josie in the room with her to see if that would help. Still, no luck...
What suggestions do y'all have? How did you teach your kids to play independently? Help!!!!
I read an interesting thing in the book by Michelle Duggar similar to this. She starts her kids at about 6 months old on blanket time. Teaches them to stay on the blanket and play with just the toys she puts on the blanket so she can get other tasks accomplished. She keeps the blanket near her, so the child doesn't feel lonely, but the child knows that when it's blanket time, they have to stay put til mom gets finished and puts the blanket up. This probably won't help with Karsyn, but might be something to try with the baby!
ReplyDeleteWe do "room time" too! It started with time in their cribs and now has graduated to their full rooms. One thing that has helped is that they have special toys just for room time, so its not the same "boring" things they play with at other times. Another thing that has helped my two is to have some music playing. We have some CDs that have their names in the songs, and those are their favorite. I do come back and check on them every so often and "room time" does require training, but in the end, you'll love it!
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