Daily routine for this 4.5 year old who has been raised on Babywise. Find out what daily life was like and find a preschooler schedule to follow. Find out about sleeping for a 4 year old and being super emotional.
Daily routine for this 4.5 year old who has been raised on Babywise. Find out what daily life was like and find a preschooler schedule to follow. Find out
This is a summary for McKenna between the age of 4 years 6 months and 4 years 7 months.
EATING
She is eating a good variety of food. Things are good.
SLEEPING
Sleep is good. We are using her “okay to wake” clock in the mornings again because she started waking up and yelling for us, which is a problem since her room is next to Brinley’s. So she isn’t allowed to call for us until the light is green. I have it set to go green 15 minutes after I typically get her. Tricky me!
Rest time is so tricky. She does love to sleep, so she will cozy up into a nice nap, but when I wake her up, she cries and asks me why I don’t just let her sleep longer. Ha! This is really only a problem on the day she has dance class–I have to make sure I start waking her up with plenty of time to get her awake and chipper before it is time to leave.
>>>Read: How to Do Rest Time Instead of Naps
PLAYING
All is well here in our daily play times.
PRESCHOOL
She is still being great at preschool.
EMOTIONS/BEHAVIOR
Remember those lack of emotions I talked about last month? Did I forget to knock on wood? I think so!
This month has been such a passionate month for emotional outbursts. I have never seen a child throw a tantrum like McKenna did this month. Wow am I glad it was my third child instead of my first. I might have curled into a ball and cried if Brayden did that. As it was, I literally laughed and really wanted to video it all so I could laugh later.
We actually had two big days of outbursts.
>>>Read: How To Respond to Your Emotional Preschooler
Outburst One–Soccer Game
We were at a soccer game of Brayden’s. It was our first time playing at the field we were at that day. When we got there, I told the girls they could play at the playground. Once I sat at the field, I decided the playground was too far from the playing field. I went and told the girls to come over to the field with me. McKenna was NOT happy with that. As we walked to the field, she would stop and refuse to move. At one point, she started screaming, “I want to play at the playground!” Whew!
Outburst Two–Swimming Lessons
We had made great progress at swimming lessons early this month. I decided we had spent enough time gently waiting for McKenna to face her fears in the water–especially considering she had been fine and then became scared. It has been months. So I decided if she did cooperate with her teacher and do her best, she wouldn’t play in the water after her lesson. That motivated her and she did awesome! She even passed off a new skill.
The next week, she decided to test my resolve on the new rule. She did well for 15 minutes and then decided she done and absolutely refused to even try to do anything else for her teacher. We got her out of the pool and had her sit with me. I told her if she would like to do what her teacher asked, she would be allowed to play, but if not, she would sit by me.
And the tantrum of all tantrums ensued.
She cried and screamed. She threw her goggles. She sat on the ground and kicked her feet. She walked to the edge of the pool and considered jumping in (I am glad she didn’t). It was so over-the-top that I was actually just flabbergasted. I told her if she continued screaming, she would go straight to bed when she got home. She continued anyway.
This went on for about 15 minutes before my husband took her out to the vehicle.
In the vehicle, he had a nice talk with her. He totally kept his cool and turned this into a great teaching moment. He asked her if she knew why she didn’t get to swim and why she would be going straight to bed when she got home. She understood and was able to explain it. She went to bed peacefully that night.
The real test will be tonight at swimming lessons…we will see if she really did learn. We have talked about it since and she plans to be compliant. We will see what happens when it is time to speak with actions.
SCHEDULE
Here is her schedule. She has preschool three days a week and church one day a week, so she doesn’t really have consistency from day to day exactly. Here is a school day schedule.
8:00 AM–wake up. Get dressed. Eat breakfast.
9:00 AM–go to school
12:00 noon–get home. Eat lunch. Free play.
1:30 PM–sibling play with Brinley
2:00 PM–Independent play time
3:00 PM–Rest time
3:30 PM–I check on her. If sleeping, I let her sleep. If not, I let her get up.
4:00 PM–Chores. Then possible computer time or TV time or free play
5:30 PM–Dinner
7:00 PM–Start getting ready for bed
8:00 PM–in bed
On days she is home, we do a nice long bath in the morning and also do learning activities.
GOOD BOOKS
- On Becoming Preschool Wise
- Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood
- The Five Love Languages of Children
- The Preschoolers Busy Book
- Children’s Learning Activities (website)
- Parenting With Love And Logic
RELATED POSTS
- McKenna Preschooler Summary: 4.5 Years Old
- McKenna Preschooler Summary: 4.5 Years Old (plus 2 months)
- Kaitlyn Preschooler Summary: 4.5 Years Old
- Brayden Preschooler Summary: 4.5 Years Old
