Timetable
Level 1
MAGNIFICENTPARENT.COM
GROW YOUR MAGNIFICENT CHILD
DAILY FUN TIMETABLES
A sample timetable is provided on the last page of each Level. The sample timetables are intended to make parent’s and children’s lives easier by acting as readily available guides when needed. A daily timetable helps parents to more easily plan their day. A timetable also helps parents to remember which activity they will do next and helps them to avoid doing any activity more often than they intended.
About four hours total each day.
The total amount of time required for a parent and child to do the magnificentparent.com activities together is about 2 hours and 10 minutes per day at Level 1, 2 hours and 25 minutes at Level 2, 3hours and 38 minutes at Level 4, 3 hours and 40 minutes at Level 5 and 6 hours at Level 6. To most benefit baby’s development (and her enjoyment of course) the activities are spread out over a 10 hour period from 8am until 6pm. This means that at each Level there is about six hours of free time for parent and child during that 10 hour period. The free time can be used in a number of ways such as, for example: Doing the activities listed as ‘all day’, doing household chores, shopping, socialising, preparing or planning for activities, or generally having fun with your child.
Using a timetable.
The sample timetables provided at each Level are quite flexible and are intended to be guides only. It is suggested that you use them in the following way:
Always keep in mind that the activities that you do with your child should be spread out as evenly as possible across the day. The activities can be spread out beyond the 8am to 6pm period to, for example, 6am to 8pm if that suits you and your child best.
At each Level a good number of the activities can be done in the normal course of your day by, for example, placing objects in baby’s hands while you are sitting and talking to friends, introducing her to people while shopping or at an event, dancing with her when at a music concert or when visiting a friend who also has a young child, using garden hoses or lines on pathways as a balance beam, by giving your child a massage while visiting her near relatives, by looking through books in a bookshop or library, by going for a swim at the beach or pool, or by simply involving your child in housework. There are many, many ways by which inventive magnificent parents can do many of the activities in the normal course of their day. Parents often say that as they have learnt about magnificentparent.com they have changed the way they think about parenting. That they now constantly think about how they can support their child to be enjoyably involved in developmentally positive activities wherever they are and whatever they are doing. Thus they often do some of the magnificentparent.com activities as a part of their everyday lives.
Try to do the activities that require special equipment or materials such as cardboard boxes or toys at home if you cannot take them with you when you go out. This might mean, for example, that if baby is at Level 4 and she is doing the activity where she unpacks toys from boxes, you could vary the timetable as follows: Do the activity 4 times evenly spaced between 8 am and 10 am and then do the activity 6 times evenly spaced between 3pm and 6pm when you have returned home. Be careful though, not to cram the activities so close together that your child does not enjoy them.
There will undoubtedly be days when you will be unable to do all of the activities with your child. They will be days when you or your child are ill, when you are travelling all day in a car, bus, train or aircraft, when you are camping or on holiday away from home, when you are required to deal with urgent business matters or when you are occupied with one of the many other matters that often arise and take a parent’s time from his child. On these days you can do as many of the activities as possible and that is all.
You will likely find, for example, that the less physically demanding activities can help to relieve boredom for your child if she is ill or travelling, that quite a few activities can be done in the normal course of your day when on holiday, and that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages if you take one or more sets of ten Excellent Knowledge cards with you when you go out for the day. Your child will not be greatly disadvantaged if she occasionally misses doing some activities.
Some parents who work outside their home do magnificentparent.com part-time.
Some examples are:
If working for 3 days each week they do magnificentparent.com activities for 4 days and also do some of the activities before and after work.
If working for a few hours each day they do magnificentparent.com activities during the other hours of the day.
If working for eight hours a day for 5 days a week, they do some magnificentparent.com activities before and after work.
The times listed in the time column are included as a guide only and can be varied by parents according to their child’s individual sleeping, waking and eating times. It is very likely that you will vary the timetable at least a little each day. Choose to do the activities you consider to be most important for your child if all the usual activities cannot be done.
During Level 1 it is quite normal for baby to sleep for periods of several hours during the day and to sometimes wake for up to an hour or more at night. For baby the difference between night-time and daytime means little, and she is usually just as happy to do the Natural Parenting activities at 3 am as she is at 3 p.m. Therefore parents often vary the sample timetable to include doing some activities when baby wakes at night. When done at night the activities give baby enjoyment, let her know that you are there for her, and also use her energy so that she is usually inclined to soon go back to sleep. Before commencing the activities it is important to first check that she is well, that she is not hungry and that she does not just need to cry for a while. If all is well, then do the Natural Parenting activities.
You may find it useful to make several photocopies of the timetable at each Level. One copy can be posted on a wall at home and another can be taken with you when you leave home to go shopping or to do other activities.
Tired parents.
Parents often become very tired during Level 1 as baby’s waking at night often disrupts their own sleep patterns. By doing the Natural Parenting activities when baby does not want to sleep you not only help with her development but, because doing the activities is likely to help her to go back to sleep sooner rather than later, you are likely to get more sleep than if you do not do the activities.
Breaks between activities.
Breaks of 10 or more minutes between activities are marked on the timetables as blank spaces except in Level 1. The breaks are not shown in Level 1 because baby’s sleep patterns (and therefore her timetable times) are likely to vary considerably during Level 1. Whereas, as she grows older and she develops to higher Levels, her sleep patterns should become more and more like her parent’s sleep patterns.
Repeated activities.
There will be times when the section “Activities for parents and babies” in one Level will list an activity that is also in the section “Activities for Parents and babies” in another Level. For example in Chapter 39 at Level 6 supervised ‘tree climbing’ is listed as an activity to develop your child’s ability to grasp objects. In Chapter 42 at Level 6 ‘tree climbing’ is also listed as an activity but this time as an activity to develop your child’s balance abilities. If your child is doing both the grasping activities and the balance activities she need only do the tree climbing activity once and not twice. She does not need to repeat doing the activity. Of course, if your child enjoys tree climbing so much that she wants to do more, and you are sure the extra climbing will not overtax her, then she should be allowed to do more.
Overlapping activities.
If at any time there is an overlap of activity times. For example in Level 5 if log rolls are due to be done during a walking period then the log rolls can be done at the specified activity time by taking a brief break from walking to do the activity, or one of the activities can be left to do later, or one of the activities can be missed at that time. It is better not to miss doing any activities if possible.
Activity duration times.
In the following sample timetables the “Activity Duration” times are approximate only and can vary from parent to parent and child to child. Each child, supported, guided, and led by her parent, will show by her enthusiasm and enjoyment of each activity, how long each activity should last, and how often she should do each activity each day. Each activity should be discontinued while it is still being enjoyed and before your child loses her enjoyment because she has been doing the activity for too long. A one minute activity might, for example, become uninteresting for your child if she does it for 1 minute and 20 seconds.
LEVEL 1: DAILY FUN TIMETABLE.
In the Level 1 timetable below “Fun balance activities” are initially conducted only 10 times daily; but 20 time spaces have been allocated for “Fun balance activities” for when 20 time spaces are needed in the near future.
