60/30 Time

Right now at "Blessed" it is Sixty-Thirty Time. When I was little this time was called "Grown Folks Time"- and I hated it. Now, as a "grown folk" I can't think of anything more wonderful. Sixty-Thirty is a name inspired by a local camp I used to volunteer at. There it was called "Thirty-Thirty Time" and meant that campers were to rest for 30 minutes and then be involved in some sort of devotional activity for 30 minutes.  Right now, here, sixty-thirty time means 60 minutes of IN YOUR ROOM non-screen activity, and 30 minutes of IN YOUR ROOM free choice time.  Did you get the "in your room" part? That's the best part, you see.

Things are actually going really well with having my nephew here, so far. He is using his summer passport daily! I haven't heard "I'm bored" yet and he's been here almost 2 weeks now. That being said, Momma still likes her quiet time during the day, and having a 10 year-old who doesn't nap was impeding on this self-proclaimed necessity of mine. That's when an angel of the Lord appeared and told me to implement 60/30 Time. (Okay, there was no actual, literal, angel, but I feel like it was a gift from the Lord!) Surprisingly, Texan boy was eager to begin this new tradition. (Perhaps he realized Auntie was getting crabby without her nap and he was anxious to be invited to leave her presence? Hmmm?) The first day we started, I helped him gather his much needed non-screen activities: books, poster board sized coloring pages of super heroes I bought him at Wal-mart, a box of wooden Tangrams, and a set of basketball cards; noted the time we were starting and then let him calculate when we'd be ending (that's right, I made it a math problem), and bid him not to come out of his room until the time was up. He dutifully (and quite quite surprisingly) obeyed.  I peeked in on him a couple of times puzzling over a Tangram and then arranging the basketball cards in some order only he could explain, then smiled and ran to my bed for a quick nap before the 7-month-old awoke from his. For each consecutive day I have just checked to make sure was settled and then let him be.

I LOVE 60/30 time. I want to make it a Valentine and ask it to go steady.

Eventually, I'd like to use some of 60/30 time to encourage the Texan to do a devotional, memorize scripture or read the Bible. I'm not a big fan of forcing that, though, so I am thinking of some ways to make that fun and interactive so that he'd desire to do this instead of feel like it was a chore. I have a great book I'm using to help with some ideas, called "The Well-Versed Family".

Here are our 60/30 Time Rules:

1. This time is flexible, not set in stone each day. (I usually begin it when the toddler goes down for her nap.)
2. Activities during this time must be able to be done in your bedroom and may not require adult assistance.
3. Unless it is an emergency, you may not leave your room at this time.
$. All activities need to be quiet to moderate in volume so as not to disturb sleeping 2 year-olds (or 28 year-olds).

If you don't have some "Grown-Folks Time" during your day, might I encourage you to implement something like this? It's so so very wonderful.