Whether my children believe they need or don’t need nap time, I believe they need nap time or at least quiet time.

Olivia still naps once a day (most days).

Mikail hasn’t really napped since the day Olivia was born. Funny how that works. BUT he does have Quiet Time. Most days.

Over the Christmas Holidays when Mikail was not at school, I found that he only lasted for 15 minutes in his room at Quiet Time. Too short. I would like him to be in his room for 45 minutes for sure. So, I went around the house and found activities he could do independently. I put a collection into six bins. One bin for each weekday and one bin for Saturday and Sunday. It’s been amazing how this extends his Quiet Time.

I printed the first letter of the day of the week on a label and stuck it on each bin. This is helping Mikail with sound/letter matching. He picks out the correct bin for each day. Under each large letter I have the full day of the week written out for later use when he is older and actually sounding out full words. It also encourages him to recognize the word shape of each day of the week. Amazing what kids learn from print just being available to them.

Mikail has a loft bed that has a pull-out desk. We pull out the desk and he plays with the Quiet Time activities there. When he is done he either climbs into his reading chair and ‘reads’ or goes under his bed to play with some toys that he keeps there. Sometimes he crawls into bed with books or cars and falls asleep. I love those days.

Are you looking for ways to extend your child’s Quiet Time? I have listed what I put into each bin below, but if you Google or Pinterest ‘Quiet Time Bins’, there are oodles of ideas out there.

• Shape sorter with keys to open each door according to key/door colour.
• Builders Too Box puzzle book
• Lacing card
• Food Puzzle Book
• Story book to ‘read’

• Egg sorter/puzzle
• Beading onto pipe cleaner
• wooden blocks
• Misc. characters (picked up at Value Village and thrown in the dishwasher before using)
• Thomas the Train puzzle
• Board books to ‘read’

• Building items (not sure what they are called-got them at Value Village too)
• mini clipboard with paper and markers.
• Stickers and book to put stickers in.
• Set of magnets
• Backyardigans Look and Find Board books.

• Tin of mini cars and trains
• Magnetic Noah’s Ark activity
• Snakes and Ladders.
• Number Flashcards.
• Wooden Beading activity.
• Looks like I missed the books in this bin. Ooops.

• Magnadoodle
• Tools
• Animals
• Alphabet magnets to stick on cookie sheet
• Thomas the Train lift the flap book 

•  Bag of Smurfs and other cartoon characters from Value Village (or if you go to fast food restaurants a lot these are in the kid’s meals. We don’t, so I got them at Value Village)
• Train and track (also a fast food restaurant prize)
• Lacing Cards
• I Spy Book