Mommy Knows: Teaching Boundaries with Blanket Time

It’s a big, amazing, colorful world and from the moment your little ones can crawl their curiosity leads them to discover it. While it’s great to allow our little ones time to explore it’s also important to teach them boundaries. Boundaries help with protection, preparation, and gives your child a sense of responsibility. Whether you need them to sit quietly at home while you take a call, sit quietly at church, or to stay in one area while out in public, it’s important that our little ones learn the value of boundaries and it’s even more important that we as parents teach them to respect the boundaries given to them. There’s one method in my household that saves the day, every day, and that is blanket time. Here’s some tips and tricks on how to make blanket time an effective tool for teaching boundaries.

Blanket time- A simple method of getting your kids to listen and stay in one area until mom says it’s time to move on. Grab a nice size blanket, big enough to give them a little freedom but small enough to contain them and teach them about staying in a specific area.

Tips and Tricks to succeed at Blanket time:

1. Entertainment

Now sitting without an activity is torture, even to us adults! Gather some books, puzzles, flash cards coloring books, counting activities, alphabet activities, and even snacks so that you can set them up to succeed. Let them know that they are allowed to play with anything on the blanket and that it has to stay within the blanket.

2. Use a timer

This allows for the kids to participate by hitting the timer and makes them feel like they are involved! It also gives them a physical look at how much longer they have until blanket time is done.

3. Start small

Now, I do not start my 1 year off by asking him to sit on the blanket for 30 minutes, that’s not possible for his age nor is it fair to start out at where my 3 year old is just getting to. Start small. My 1 year old’s time goal is 5 minutes and then I let him go run around and play and come back as he pleases while my 3 year old finishes her last 25 minutes. Eventually your little ones will work their way up to an hour or even two, but start small.

4. Reward  

CELEBRATE! A little body staying that still for that long is an achievement! Celebrate with stickers, suckers, a trip to the park, or however you choose! Just make sure you let them know how proud you are of them for sitting still and staying in their boundary.

With love and big smiles,

torrie