Daily life, schedule, and routine for a 4.75 year old preschooler. See how the preschooler’s sleep was going and how eating was going.
This is a summary for Kaitlyn from 4.5-4.75 years old.
Post Contents
EATING
At the moment, and for most of this period, eating was just fine.
She went through a two week period, however, where she didn’t want to eat just about anything, even her reliable go-to favorites. She just didn’t want to eat.
This would normally be concerning, but I didn’t feel like something was wrong. It seemed more like a toddler who eats one tablespoon of food per meal. I am glad she is past that.
Since coming out of that, she has added an orange to her list of foods she likes. She has never liked oranges, but decided to try it and loved it. She now eats one every day.
SLEEPING
Kaitlyn’s sleep is the same. She sleeps about 11-12 hours at night and has 60 minutes of rest time each day. For this age, I find one hour to be long enough that they will fall asleep if needed and not so long they go stir crazy.
SCHOOL
School is still going well. She loves it.
DISCIPLINE
Kaitlyn loves to draw and seems to occasionally be unable to control her urge to draw on something, anything.
She has drawn on things she shouldn’t a couple of times in this period–or on a couple of things in one sitting.
We are unsure at this point if it is going to be a further problem or if the talk we had fixed it. We shall see.
SIBLINGS
Since starting school, Kaitlyn has become less of a follower to Brayden and they often now have stand-offs over who is in charge of their imaginative play.
It can be frustrating, but overall I think it is good for them. I am able to teach them about cooperation and taking turns and how to solve conflicts.
ANGEL GIRL
Kaitlyn is overall the angel she has always been. She is quite the peacemaker.
One day while at a children’s play place, there were two children being mean to McKenna. Their grandmother kept getting after them, but they were not listening to her.
Kaitlyn went to them and talked everything out. McKenna and those two children played happily together for the rest of the time we were there. It was quite impressive. She is an excellent negotiator.
I do think age four tends to be a rather easy age. They are rather self-sufficient and still very interested in pleasing their parents and other authority figures.
PRESCHOOLER SCHEDULE
7:15–wake up. Get ready for school. Eat breakfast. Play with Brayden.
9:15–leave for school (she has school 3 days a week. One day, she has dance instead)
12-:10–home from school
12:15–lunch. Then play with McKenna
1:30–rest time
2:30–up from rest time. Independent play.
3:30–free time. Some days video games.
4:00–play with Brayden and sibling play until dinner.
5:30–dinner. Chores. Family time
7:00–start getting ready for bed
8:00–in bed
GOOD BOOKS
- On Becoming Preschool Wise
- Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood
- The Five Love Languages of Children
- The Preschooler’s Busy Book
- Children’s Learning Activities (website)
- The Siblings’ Busy Book
- Parenting with Love and Logic
- On Becoming Childwise
That's interesting about the siblings. Mine are almost 5 and 3.5 and they have always been best buds but I notice some sibling rivalry going on. They are both girls so according to the Birth Order Books often the 2nd becomes opposite from the 1st. But what i notice is that they are bickering a lot and being contrary,etc. How would you deal with this and the sibling rivalry? If they don't play together or speak nicely I tell them they need to play separately and we have had many discussions and role playing on how to share, talk nicely to one another,etc. My older always comes and tells me what the 2nd did to her,etc…it's tiring:) I feel like I'm repeating myself so I think what I do probably isn't that effective.
I think you are doing the right things. Do you talk about showing love? I notice when I focus on showing love to each other, things go better. I honestly haven't had a lot of this with my kids because Brayden and Kaitlyn get along great 99% of the time, Brayden and McKenna 100%, and Kaitlyn and McKenna 98%. I do anticipate having issue with the two girls as they get older and McKenna reaches an age of more of an opinion (but Kaitlyn is the peace-making type so we shall see).Another thing is to make sure they each get special time with you and your husband. Don't compare the two. I try to let my kids work things out among themselves (if it is reasonable to do so). I think sometimes as adults we interfere more than we should and deny them the chance to learn how to solve interpersonal conflict-but you have to try to listen in to make sure it is being solved and not just one person being the dominate personality. I know my sister and I had some intense years of fighting with each other. I think part of it is pretty normal, especially if the two personalities are quite different. Or too similar :). She and I are friends today. I do think my parents could have done more to help us get along, though.And I have heard from a few people (older moms) that whenever they had two children bickering with each other, they made them share a room until they got along. I haven't looked into this or pondered it, but they swear it worked and these women don't know each other at all so it is worth considering.