One thing that I think is vitally important is to let children explore playing by themselves.  In fact, I would go as far to say that some of our societal issues today may stem from the fact that children/teens think that they have to be entertained 24/7 and have no clue how to entertain themselves!

My Beliefs

I believe learning to play by yourself encourages

• individuality
  
• creativity
• learning to love yourself
• respect
• time to think
• time to unwind
  

This day in age (in my opinion), kids are too over-scheduled!  I think activities are good and that kids should be involved, but I believe there needs to be limits.  I have a time budget and a financial budget and the kids activities have to fit into both!  I know this will get harder to maintain as they get older and want to be involved, but we have a budget and we will have to stick with it.  Plus, having kids decide those things is good decision making practice!

Encouragement

Almost every day we have a quiet time.  It is usually about two to three hours.  My younger children take naps during this time.  My older children are allowed to play quietly in their rooms.

Now that I have two children that usually do not take naps, we switch as to who is in what room.  I usually give them choices of which rooms they can be in, we take turns choosing first, and once they pick, they need to stay in that room until I come to get them.

Rewards

I need a lot of alone time.  Being a mother of four, this is a must for me!

This is when I get things done around the house that just take longer or are more frustrating when I have “help.”

Sometimes, my children will just go and be by themselves during other times as well.  I think this time is vital in being a part of a big family and I feel so blessed that they feel confident enough to let us know when they want to be alone.

Tricks

My children are not always happy that it’s quiet time.  I have learned that if I do all of my upstairs chores (or just read) for about 45 minutes to an hour, this gives them enough time to get in the right mind set.

When I am upstairs they don’t hardly come out of their rooms, so if I stay up there, then they get involved in playing and sometimes don’t notice that I’ve gone downstairs.

Right now I am struggling with them trying to sneak out of their room when they know I am downstairs.  We’ve talked about integrity and that Mommy usually knows when they are out.  If by some reason they still think that I don’t know, we’ve talked about that God always knows!  🙂

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This is a really good book (look for the review on my blog next week!) and Dr. James Dobson talks a lot about how families are over-scheduled.