A common question about living in a small home is, how do you live in peace with each other? I guess when you are forced to be near your spouse and kids you are more likely to be at odds? Seeing as how everyone I talk to says that even in a big house you still have to learn to be at peace with each other, I?m thinking that living in a small home doesn?t change relationships. If you love each other you find more opportunities to spend time together, likewise, if you fight all the time you?ll find more opportunities to fight, but living in a small space doesn?t make you fight!
Adapting to a small home requires a change in perception about a number of activities though, and entertaining your kids is one of them. How do I stay sane with four kids in a roughly 200sq ft house? I began to answer this type of question in my post answering your questions, but I had intended to make a whole post out of it, so we?ll go into more depth here.
Being a stay-at-home-mom of four children between the ages of 1 and 6 is not easy, but I will not pretend that having a bigger home would make it any easier. They are full of energy, ideas, and conversation, and no matter what your home looks like they need attention, all the time. But I knew that going into this whole motherhood thing, so I?m not complaining. Being a stay-at-home-mom is hard work, but I wouldn?t trade it for the world. My kids mean so much to me, and I pray God helps me to do the best I can to raise them to be healthy, independent, godly individuals. That?s the longterm goal, but as we mothers all know, life is lived moment to moment. My focus for this post is, how do our kids spend their time on an average day, and how do I enjoy them, while living in a small home?
Invest in Lego! Haha. Seriously though, planning out and selectively choosing entertainment (with or without your kids depending on their ages) makes a big difference in how each day goes. We have a lot of toys available to us in accessible storage, but there are certain activities our kids enjoy the most, or spend the most time doing. I prioritize those favorite activities by making them more accessible to the kids, and by making sure they have time to spend on them. When kids stay busy doing creative, mind-consuming activities, they are working their busy brains, spending time (usually) peacefully together, and sometimes I even have a few minutes to spend with one child alone or to do an activity by myself (those dishes don?t do themselves!).
(Four-year-old Girlie is working on number recognition while wearing an eye patch for lazy eye treatment)
Lego is a great example, but every family has there own favorite. I have found that if you plan space accordingly, you can make room in a small home for most any activity. Puzzles, board games, books, crafts, dress-up supplies, even musical instruments (which Papa has!). Creative storage of totes, use of cupboards, shelves, and closets, will ensure that your favorite activities are made priority in your small home. We have a set of shelves and drawers in our living area, totes in one small child?s bed and under the dining room table, a larger tote on the porch, and additional games, books, and toys in our storage camper which aren?t used as often.
Don?t forget the outdoors! When you have a small home, the outdoors becomes a priceless environment. Health professionals say children should get at least 60 minutes of free time outdoors. On most winter days our kids spend 30-60 minutes outdoors, and in the summer we count how many hours they spend indoors instead, which is far less. We are lucky enough to have an environment which is relatively safe for kids to play in unattended for a few minutes. I try to make it a rule for my 4 and 3 year olds that they can?t go out by themselves, they have to be together or with their 6 year old brother. Even if they get into trouble, it is easier to tell when two are yelling at each other than when one is alone!
(painting in pajamas ? what better way to spend a Saturday morning?)
Sending the kids outside is good for their physical and mental health and growth, so it is a priority to us, just like finding good quality entertainment indoors. But what about TV? First of all, if you haven?t figured it out yet, we do have a TV and local channels, as well as a DVD player in our bedroom. With our new electrical system we can use them anytime we want. I have heard that most kids watch a few hours of TV, plus time playing video games every day. Papa and I give our kids one and a half hours of screen time each day. Like discussing food, I feel somewhat vulnerable telling you how much they watch. Some of you probably think that is way too much, perhaps others feel guilty that theirs watch more. That is not my intention. Nevertheless, our kids watch one movie or three half hour PBS shows each day, Monday through Friday, except some Wednesdays when we are more busy and don?t have time for it. When they watch TV I am almost always washing dishes and making phone calls since it?s quiet.
What about the family time that comes with living in a small space? I should hope that ours isn?t any different than a family living in an average sized home. As a stay-at-home-mom, I spend significantly more time with our kids than Papa does, but we both make it a priority to spend our days together as much as possible. On occasion the kids will spend a night or a few hours away from home with someone in the family, but most of the time we do things as a unit. On an average day that means reading together, family worship, games, chores, crafts, and of course tickling and cuddling! Usually we do arrends together once a week (laundromat, post office, library, bank, etc.), and on the weekends we often spend more time outdoors than during the week. Much of this together time is not scheduled, but fits in between other activities naturally.
And then there is homeschooling. How much time do we invest? Where do we do it? Where do we keep our books? In this post, I talked quite a bit about the where?s and how?s of our homeschool, which we spend roughly 5-10 hours a week doing together. This week we had to make a minor change in where we keep our homeschool books though. Previously we kept them on a book shelf in the living room. Turns out that?s a very attractive place for a one year old to pull books from. Because Chickie is not responding to discipline (another spirited child?) and I would rather not spend my days putting them all back on the shelf again and again, I cleared out a spot on a shelf in my room for them, putting my less frequently read books in the storage camper until summer at least. That way our homeschool things are still nearby, but not easy to reach by little fingers.
And what about the baby? Twelve-month-old Chickie finds plenty to do. She is still in the exploration stage, where most toys don?t entertain her for very long because her attention gets drawn to the many people and activities going on around her. We keep age-appropriate toys readily available, but she really enjoys playing with her big sibs, and exploring any drawers or cupboards or boxes I let her get into. Right now she still takes one, sometimes two naps a day, for about one hour each, which is often when the older kids get projects out that they don?t want her exploring. I also spend time nursing and cuddling her, or carrying her around while I cook, play, or teach. When I need two hands and someone is working on an important project that she can?t get into, Chickie enjoys sitting in her homemade highchair with a stimulating activity, like a cup and spoon to stir with or play drums! (And speaking of Chickie, this post happens to not have any pictures of her, but Friday?s post will have plenty of cute ones!)
(playing with Papa?s electronic tools and materials)
To sum up, here?s how our kids spend their days:
- ?? ?Easy access to stimulating, creative activities
- ?? ?As much outdoor time as they want during mostly good weather (above 20 degrees Fahrenheit and mostly dry)
- ?? ?Up to one and a half hours of screen time a day, usually ?educational?
- ?? ?One to two hours of planned educational activities, four days a week, September through May
- ?? ?Entertaining baby sister
- ?? ?Lots of together time in between
And all of this, while living in a 200sq ft home with a family of six. If you live in a small home, please share your experience ? how does your family spend an average day?
Source: http://americanfamilynow.org/?p=1425
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