I spent two years in college working as a Resident
Assistant. While there were plenty of benefits that went along with the job
(i.e. free room and board), there were plenty of downfalls as well.
For example, I can't count the number of times someone came to
my door in the middle of the night needing me to get their spare key for them.
On more occasions than I'd like to admit, I had to call for an ambulance so a
freshman could be taken to the hospital to have their stomach pumped. Also, I
would be remiss if I didn't mention my unfruitful attempts to figure out with
the utmost certainty which dorm room the smell of marijuana was emanating from.
As is the case with any job, I had plenty of training before
I stepped into my role as a RA. I learned when and how to call campus security.
I learned how to beat on doors with a rubber mallet in the event of a fire. I
even learned how to take shelter-in-place during an active shooter alert. True
story, that last lesson actually came in handy on the night Bethany and I started
dating.
There was one part of training though that I never imagined
I would need to know. In fact, I was so confident that would be the case that I
spent the entire training session doodling a picture of Flavor Flav on my
notes. Why Flavor Flav? I started sketching a clock and then drew a chain and
before I knew it, there was a beautifully rendered image of Flavor Flav there
on my sheet of scratch paper.
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| There he is...Flavor Flav |
Oh yes, this is where I should mention that training was
over what to do in the event of a pandemic. Seems totally appropriate, right?
Fast forward approximately 12 years and here we are. Bethany is currently
working from home in the not-so-cozy confines of our bedroom while I try with all of my might to keep
Ellie and Ethan away from that very bedroom. That brings to what I like to call
"THE QUEST FOR A SCHEDULE!"
By the way, that's so much cooler if you imagine I'm speaking in a really,
loud, booming voice.
Over the past three years, I've largely ignored all concept
of a schedule. The lone exception to that rule is lunch time, nap time, and "Bethany
gets home" time. The rest of the day has been pretty much all left up to
fate. Well, part of having a pandemic is that is becomes much harder to leave
things up to fate. Therefore, taking a cue from an article
written by a former roommate's wife, I decided it was time to really start a
schedule and hey, maybe it'll even help prepare Ellie for preschool a little
better.
First things first, I sat down at our kitchen table with a
sheet of paper and divided the day out into 30-minute or 1-hour increments,
scheduling different activities for each block. For example, in the morning
during Ethan's nap, we have clean-up time where Ellie and I make her bed, brush
her teeth, and wash the previous day's dishes. Then, we spend some time reading
library books, working on her phonics skills, and stimulating her mind with
puzzles and games or an iPad learning app.
Once Ethan awakes from his nap around 10, that's our free
time where Ellie can play with Ethan and do whatever activity she wants to for
an hour. Although, if it's nice out during that time, the goal is to head
outside and play. If we're stuck indoors, then I will sometimes choose to
gently direct her towards art time with Play-Doh or paints/colors. After that,
it's generally time for lunch which is followed by naps for both Ellie and
Ethan.
Once they wake up in the afternoon, there's more free time
initially which is followed by the hope of outdoor time from 3:00 to 4:00. Once
4:00 rolls around, it's time for Ellie and I to work on prepping dinner for the
evening. A bonus part of dinner prep is that Ellie also (hopefully) spends that
time practicing her bible memory verses. Finally, at 4:30, Bethany emerges from
the confines of the bedroom and takes over leaving me to finally exhale for the
first time in eight-plus hours.
While I'd love to say the schedule is working perfectly thus
far, the reality is that there is still some kinks to work out. For one thing,
I'm having to consistently shift activities around based upon the flow of the
day. There's also some times when my three-year-old simply does not want to do
one activity and would rather do something different. That being said, the
schedule isn't really for her; it's for me.
You see, despite my dislike of routine and scheduling,
having a plan for the day enables me to be intentional about my time with Ellie
and Ethan. It allows me to make sure that all of the important stuff is
occurring in Ellie's day but that we also have built-in time for fun. As I said earlier, I also truly
believe that kind of having a schedule now will only help Ellie adjust when it
comes time for her to go to preschool in the fall. At least I hope she goes to
preschool in the fall. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
'Cause, in case you didn't hear, there's kind of a pandemic
going on out there. #DaddyWrite
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| Nope, I don't mean the board game. |
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