Roomtime {an overview of it and the many benifits}

So I mentioned in my routine chart post that one of the ways I stay sane is to have my oldest do roomtime every day. It has seriously been so so good for us and I would highly encourage you to consider doing it with your kids! Ideally you would start this when your child is pretty young but I'm sure you could still start it if he/she is a little older. All of the pictures in this post are of my oldest daughter in roomtime and show the progression she went through as she grew.

I would highly recommend reading this post from Chronicles of a Babywise Mom blog and also this post where she talks more about how she starts her babies in the playpen before moving them to the room. My post is not going to be as in depth as hers but I will share an overview of it and what has worked for us.

So what is roomtime?
Basically, it is a set chunk of time that my daughter spends playing independently in her room each day. It does not begin and end whenever she feels like it, rather I let her know when it is going to start, help get her settled, set the timer, and then leave (closing the door behind me). It is over when her timer goes off. She still wanders into her room and plays by herself throughout the day but this is different because I decide when it happens and for how long. Also she stays in her room for the entire time. Obviously if she has to go potty or something she can come out but then she knows to go right back to her room. Right now we do this once a day for one hour and it is just part of her morning routine. 

Why in her room? And why do we shut the door?
We do it in her room because she can't get into anything she is not supposed to and there is plenty to entertain her in there.  When we started off doing roomtime with her she was about 15 months old. At that time we used a babygate in the doorway. That way we could see/hear her and it also contained her in the room. Today we close the door for roomtime. I can't remember exactly how old she was when we started closing the door but we did it as soon as having the door open became a distraction for her (mabye she was 2 1/2?). We found that if she saw/heard us while in roomtime, she would want to know what was going on or she would always be trying to talk to us. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but the point is for her to entertain herself for an extended period of time without us.

Why do we use a timer?
We have a kitchen timer that stays in her room specifically for roomtime (it is also super helpful for encouraging fast clean up or when we tell her she has 5 more minutes to play). We started using it in the very beginning when she was little and was not too excited about the idea of roomtime. At the beginning we would set it for only 5 minutes but sometimes she would be crying at the end because she had a hard time letting me out of her sight (and this is exactly why we started roomtime when we did). We wanted her to know that it was the timer going off that was ending roomtime not her crying. We still use it today, mostly because then she does not peek her head out of her room a dozen times to ask me if it is over yet.

What are the benifits?
Your child learns independence and how to entertain herself without you! Not only that but she has space to grow her imagination and be creative. Concentration increases because she has a chance to focus on things without distractions. It teaches them boundaries and also how to solve their own problems. My daughter also comes out of roomtime in a great mood! Not only this, but as a parent you get time all to yourself. I am not one to wake up earlier than my childeren so I sometimes use this time to get shower/get ready for the day. Also, a break from each other is good (for both the parent and child) and I find that afterwards I feel refreshed and more excited to play with her. Sometimes we will also do a short roomtime in the evening when I am getting dinner on the table. It seriously just makes our day go more smoothly and the independence she has learned from doing it is awesome!

How do you start doing this with you little one?
In the post I linked to above she talks about starting independent playtime in the playpen then moving them to their room. We didn't do this and went straight to the room with a baby gate because my daughter was a little bit older when we started with her (although I wish we had started younger!). Also at first she would only sit by the gate and play with her toys but over time she ventrued out into her room. With my 7 month old I started doing independent playtime and I put her either in the playpen or on a blanket. She plays by herself for about 15 minutes, sometimes more. Right now we do not use a timer with her but I think we will soon. Slowly increase the time your child does independent playtime until they are doing it for the time you wish. I think the key is consistency and just making it a part of your child's routine every day.

 

 

After a while your child will come up with some pretty neat things in roomtime and will be so excited to show you afterwards. 

 

Just about every day my daughter comes out of roomtime with a story to share with me about her adventures in her room.



I highly recommend having your child do independent playtime! It has been so so helpful to our everday and just for the attitude of my daughter. I hope this post helped encourage you and answered a few questions on how to do it. Please let me know though if you have any questions about it!