If you are new to the blog, you may not know that I have a YouTube channel. Along with a ton of videos about foster care, I also like to post stay at home mom routines, day in the life videos, cleaning videos and just overall #momlife stuff.
Since this is the last week of school, I decided to post an after school routine. Right now I am a mom to 3 girls. Lilia and Marissa my biological children, and Rosie our foster daughter. The older girls are finishing up their second and first year of kindergarten respectively and I cannot believe it! My babies are getting so big!
After school looks a bit different each day but we have a pretty regular routine we stick to.
In Ontario where I live, we have a 2 year full day kindergarten program. When I went to kindergarten, it was only half day. Not all moms agree with this full day kindergarten format but I have found that both of my girls have thrived in the full day program. However they are definitely tired at the end of their school day. And hungry!
If the weather is nice, I like to walk with Rosie in the stroller to go get the older girls from school. It is good exercise for all of us as we live in a really hilly area.
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When we get home the girls will either watch a show together in our basement or have some ipad time playing games or watching kids youtube channels. Their favorties are Cookie Swirl C and Chloes American Girl Doll Channel.
I put Rosie down for her nap, she will usually take a 1.5 hour nap and wake up around 4:30 just in time for my husband to get home from work!
I make the girls a snack, in this video they had peanut butter on crackers, strawberries and a yogurt drink.
I take this time as a work break in my day where I can work on a blog post, edit a video or reply back to comments on YouTube or Social Media. Rosie is a very active almost 1 year old who doesn’t let me get much done. She requires a lot of attention and does not play well independently and is lonely when the older girls are at school! So I really only have her 2 naps to clean the house, work on the blog and ya know…shower!
I also use this time when Rosie is napping and the older girls are having their screen time for the day, to start dinner. We like to eat around 6pm. In this video Rosie didn’t nap because she was cutting her first 2 teeth and had not been sleeping well for a few days so she could not wait until after school for her second nap. So dinner did not get started until Greg got home!
Marissa gets bored of screen time a lot quicker then Lilia she will usually be looking for something else to do. I like to play a game with her, or play pretend. She loves to pretend she is the teacher and I am the student and it is a fun way to learn about what she did at school that day, because I find when I ask her “what did you do/learn at school today” I will get short nondescript answers. So these types of games let me feel more connected to them!
Some days (in June) we will swim in our pool right after school instead, or make crafts or read books but usually I find this is the best time for screen time for my kids. As a busy mom who runs 3 businesses and has to deal with foster care visits and paperwork I really value that after school time as time for me to be productive. This is why I like to walk because it gives us a good 15 minutes to chat and reconnect after being away from each other all day!
What is your after school routine like? Check out the video! I love watching other moms routines! I think it is fun!
