1 Year Old Daily Schedule To Make Life Simple
Daily routines are very important for all people, and toddler are no exception.
A daily routine for your toddler can help improve behavior in your toddler and prevent those tantrums that may be happening more often than you like.
Babies and toddler do want to know what to expect on a daily basis and it makes the parenting life easier too!
Honestly if it wasn’t for all the daily routines that I have in place, I would probably lose my mind and drive my kids crazy too!
Here is a successful daily schedule for a 1-year-old to make your life easier.
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As your toddler grows, the schedule will adjust with her. Remember to be flexible, but try to keep some sort of stability with daily routines.
You’ll want to adjust your daily routine based on the time your little one wakes up in the morning and how many naps they still take. Every family will be a little different in these areas, so it’s important to understand that you’ll need to make a routine that works for you, and use this routine that i’m about to lay out as a guideline.
1 Year Old Schedule Daily
Wake up 5:45-7am: Some toddlers are early risers. If your little one is up at 6am, that’s very normal. It’s kind of nice getting an early start to the morning anyway, you can get a lot done if you went to sleep at a reasonable time yourself and aren’t super exhausted!
Read next: 6 Realistic Tips For The Exhausted And Burntout Moms – Combat Fatigue And Become A Positive Parent
Breakfast 8am: After waking up, it’s a nice idea to have some cuddle and snuggle time before breakfast is served. This is a nice time to talk about dreams they may have had or things they may be thinking about early in the morning. You can make a cup of coffee and have a chit chat with your toddler before you start making breakfast. If your toddler is a “give me food now” type of person, then go ahead and make breakfast right away. I personally love having a little bonding time before the busyness of the day begins.
Post breakfast wash up 8-9am: After breakfast, it’s a good idea to tidy up a little bit. While this is a mommy duty, you can totally involve your toddler in the task. Ask your little one to walk her dish over to you or give her a little broom so she can sweep up the floor while you wash the dishes. If she has a pretend kitchen, she can wash the dishes too! The point is, tidy together, it’s more fun this way.
Leave the house 9-11am: I love to leave the house on a daily basis, it helps me keep my sanity. Whether we go for a walk or a drive, it’s a good idea to leave for a few hours. Try a new play space, go to the park or visit the mall. It doesn’t matter “what” you do, but it’s a good idea to leave the house. If two hours seems like too long of a time to be out with your little one, then adjust it to what works for you. For us, it takes at least 30 minutes to leave the house, and i like to stop in at Starbucks before we head out to our destination so this takes up atleast 45 minutes of the 2 hour window.
Lunch time 11:30am-12pm: Make lunch for you and your toddler. We like to do simple meals such as grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs or pb&j. I’ll add fruit and veggies as a side and give water, milk or juice to drink.
Playtime 12-2pm: Between 12-2pm it’s a nice time to just relax, play together on the floor, do some pretend play, and just enjoy each other. You can pop onto the computer while your little one watches some screen time, or encourage independent play by using quiet time to your advantage.
Read next: 37 Best Board Games For Preschoolers And Toddlers
Nap time 2-3pm: Take a chance to relax during your toddlers nap time. Your dishes should already be clean, so unless you have a mountain of laundry that’s really bothering you, take a lay down on the couch, you deserve it.
Afternoon play 3-4:30pm: If the weather is great, go outside and play at the park after nap time. Your little one will be refreshed and will really enjoy an afternoon at the playground. If you would rather stay home, play with some sensory bins or read some books together.
Read next: Calm Down Corner Best Practices And How To Create One For Your Child
Dinner prep 4:30-6pm: After playtime, it’s time to get dinner ready. Have your toddler help you in the kitchen by grabbing the veggies or pantry items and giving them to you while you prep dinner. Once Dad is home from work, he can take over the playtime with the baby while you focus on cooking dinner. After dinner prep, you’ll eat dinner and finish the dishes!
After dinner dash 6-8pm: After dinner is complete and dishes are done, it’s time to wash up, have storytime and start bedtime. Hopefully, the baby is asleep between 7-8 so you can have a little quiet time before going off to bed Mama.
Read next: How To Create A Routine To Calm Your Kid Down At Bedtime (And Go To Sleep Nicely)
This 1 year old schedule daily can work if you have one child, 2 or 3! You’ll just need to adjust based on your family needs.
Hold a family meeting and see if there are activities that the older kids may want to do during playtime to make the toddler schedule more manageable for you.
The Importance Of A Schedule
Most successful people have daily routine and daily habits are important from toddlerhood into adulthood.
Here are 5 benefits for creating a daily routine:
- Helps your child get on a schedule: Consistent routine will help align the body with day to day basics by creating a body clock.
- Creates family bonds: When a child understands what is expected, they understand what is important and if family time becomes a part of the routine, then the takeaway will be that family is important.
- Establishes expectations: when your child knows what to expect and when there will be fewer power struggles in your home.
- Creates calm at home: With routine comes certainly and with certainty comes calm. A calm home is a happy home!
- Provides independence: when your child has a routine, they can begin to do things on their own when they know what is expected. This creates independence which also in turn helps raise confident kids.
- Creates healthy habits: routines help you stay on track and brushing the teeth every morning and evening during morning and evening routines will help children understand the importance of healthy habits.
When establishing a routine with your little one you’ll have to have a little patience at first, but if you keep practicing the important things on your list of to-do’s then it will all become second nature in no time, and you can say goodbye to power struggles.
You’ll have to adjust your daily schedule as your toddler grows into a preschooler and then into a school aged kid and you;ll learn a lot of new things along the way.
If you have older children here are some routines you can use with them:
- After School Routine For Kids To Manage Meltdowns
- How To Create A Stress-Free Morning Routine For School
- The Importance Of Quiet Time For Kids
- The Ultimate Summer Schedule (That’s Not Really A Schedule At All)