In the cooler months, we play outside til 4:30ish, shower/bath around 5, then dinner, stories and bed between 7 and 7:30pm.
Now it's hotter and stays light til later, I won't let DS play outside in the heat of the day, so it might be 4-4:30 before he gets outside. I'm after ideas for how I can change our afternoon routine so he still gets a decent outside play as well as a bath/shower and bed at a decent hour (7:30pm works well here).
We are fortunate the our backyard is in the shade from about 2pm onwards. Normally we are in the back yard around 3-5pm (often less time though). At about 4:30/5pm it is straight inside for a bath and then eating dinner by 5:15pm. (I always have their dinner prepared earlier, speeds things up).
Depending on how hungry and how dirty they are, sometimes dinner and bath are switched around.
Generally by 5:45pm, they are dinnered, bathed, and pj-ed ready for Dad to arrive home at 6pm. Cuddles, stories etc til 6:30, then into bed at 6:30pm.
I feed them earlier at 4:30pm then straight outside to play. They can get dirty, if it's hot have some water and make a mess. Then when Dad gets home at 6pm they are well on their way to tiring, so a few games of chasey with Dad... Then bath time and straight into PJs with books and then bed.
I dislike summer for this very reason! We have a bit of shade out the back so I take the kids out at about 4/4:15 but with hats and most of then time they will have suncream on anyway. Inside at 5/5:15 for a bath or shower (usually bath but shower if running late) and dinner at about 5:45 (I always prepare during the day).
DH is more often that not still at work until late so it's then tidy up, teeth, little play, story and bed by say 7/7:30.
At the moment it's not too bad because even though we are getting warm days, I check the current UV index and its getting down to the moderate stage by 3:30/4 so we go outside then (usually to the park up the bad of the street as our backyard is tiny). On the REALLY hot days in the middle of summer I try to play outside first thing in the morning before hibernating inside or, if we do go outside in the afternoon we stay under the alfresco area or I put a sunshade up and we either do water play or set up the blow up pool. Sometimes DD1 likes playing under the hose when we water the garden after the dinner and before bath.
We've always eaten as a family, so the early dinner wouldn't work here... I also worry about DS getting hungry if he eats earlier - it'd be 14+ hrs til he eats again. And because he has a meltdown when he sees sunscreen, I do worry about the sun/UV.
Might just have to be more organised with dinner...
What's your Summer afternoon/evening routine?
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