5 Best Parenting Tips for Under 5

Here it is parents! A list of the best items for the under 5 crowd!

It's like Oprah's favorite things... but I'm nobody.

#1 Best Parenting Idea EVER: Quiet time boxes

Kenzie gave up napping by 18 months. Eventually, instead of playing quietly in her room, she would lay on the floor and kick the living hell out of her door for an hour. Imagine sitting at the kitchen table, trying to reconcile bank accounts, while hearing the constant pounding of feet on a door. It was not a good situation. I scoured the internet and found the idea for quiet time boxes.

The steps to building your own set of boxes:

• Gather up all the kids toys in the whole house, that are small enough to fit in a box.
• Buy 20 qt. plastic tubs... a lot of them.
• Fill the tubs with the toys.
• Take a new one out every day for 2 hours until the last box has been used.
• Repeat.

The majority of our boxes contain these items:

• Story on CD with read-a-long book
• color-wonder book with markers (can't write on anything but the book. Genius!)
• Dress up outfit
• Figurine set to play with
• Puzzle
• Book
• Magnet set

That's pretty much it. As she has gotten older, each box has it's own theme. Examples: under the sea, safari, aladdin, frozen, tangled, etc. It gives them plenty to play with in a 2 hour time span. Every now and again she puts herself down for a nap. That's her call to make. As long as she sleeps a solid 7pm to 7am, I am not trying to force her to nap.

When quiet time is over, so are the toys. We put them all back in the box and the boxes are put away. They ONLY come out during this time which makes them special.

#2 Best Tip for Leaving the House: Stocked Bag

Leaving the house with kids of any age is never easy. First you have to bring a car load of junk "just in case" and second they usually decide to poop at the exact moment you have to leave to be somewhere.

I can't help you with the pooping, but I can give you some tips to make leaving the house quicker and easier.

First of all, forget the over the shoulder diaper bag. Get yourself a big backpack with lots of compartments. Fill the compartments as such:

• Compartment 1: A set of diapers,  a big pouch of wipes, and a changing pad. Wipes will double for butts and hands & face. If your kids are over 1 year old, you probably won't do much changing outside of the house any more.
•  Compartment 2: utensils, bibs, yum boxes, pouches of food. The Yum Boxes are the key here. They can be filled 20 minutes before you leave, with all the snacks your little one can handle, and you won't have to wait for food to be delivered to the table, or pay for food that doesn't get touched. Don't have a yum box for each kid yet? Buy them right now. You can thank me later.
• Limited number of toys. Lugging around 100 toys will just hurt your back. Put a few special toys in the pack they are only allowed to play with while at restaurants or outings. My 3yr old loves wipe clean books. My 1.5 yr old, loves food... so that's an easy one.
• Don't forget Sippy cups in the side pockets. They aren't supposed to leak, but they do.

Keep extra diapers, clothes, coats, shoes, and snacks in your car. That way you don't have to lug them everywhere but they are close in case you need them.

When you get home, replace the bibs, utensils, diapers, and wipes if needed. Clean the food and trash out of your bag so it will be ready to go for next time.

#3 Best Sleeping Tip: Early bedtime

My kids sleep like champs. They both have a bedtime of 7pm. They both sleep until 7am. Although my 3 year old gave up naps very early, my 1.5 year old takes a 2+ hour nap every day as well as sleeping 12 hours.

Putting them to bed early has so many more benefits than just getting your kids to sleep:

• We get a babysitter at 7pm. The kids are already in bed and we don't need to worry about the whole "babysitter - kids" dynamic. I used to babysit as a kid and I would have LOVED for someone to have put the kids to bed BEFORE I came over. It's tough putting someone else's kids to bed. It's also probably tough to be put to bed by someone other than your parents.
• We get alone time every night. It's nearly impossible to have a conversation while the kids are awake. Let alone one of meaningful purpose.
• Getting to sleep ourselves. With a 7pm bedtime, we can go to sleep at a decent hour every night. As you can see, this is the gift that keeps on giving.

#4 Best Quality Time Tip: School Time

When they are old enough... that's your call... school time is actually super fun and extremely important.

I didn't even bother until Kenzie turned 3. She has a hard enough time sitting still. I thought it was probably time when she would sit and work on a puzzle for longer than 30 minutes. 30 minutes on anything for a toddler is a BIG deal. At no point do I focus on anything for 30 minutes long unless she is really into it.

Supplies: Google preschool curriculum and you will see all the sites devoted to educating our little ones. I love Timberdoodle kits and that's what I use to school my kids. Timberdoodle uses logic based learning and a hands on approach.  Dan and I are both better at learning hands-on then by reading or listening. However, if your kids have a LOVE of books or writing or listening, there are curriculums for those learning styles too.

You can also jump on amazon on buy all sorts of good stuff if you just want to choose a few things to cover.

Here are some of the items we use every week:

• Read 1 alphabet book a week
• Logic games: Peak-a-boo bunny, Day Night, 3 Little Pigs
• Pencil work: Dot-to-Dot for tiny tots, building thinking skills workbook, math workbook, preschool workbook, drawing books
• Farmland math - which uses a farm mat and 30 farm animals of various colors
• Alphabet letters to play with - puzzles, bananagrams, magnets
• Montessori books - letter work, number work, maps
• Preschool science kit

What I saw in Kenzie after we started "school time" is almost indescribable. She is more focused, confident, and helpful. She learns about teaching others, when I teach her. She tries to "teach" Ketcher about games, writing, drawing, counting, and anything else we cover. Plus the one-on-one time with her is helping her not act out during the day. Her attention tank is full on school days so she is much more agreeable.

As a bonus Ketcher is picking up a LOT. He can count, he knows a lot of his letters, and he knows most of the letter sounds already. I haven't sat down with him and formally worked on anything yet, but I know he is listening to us and obviously picking up what I am laying down.

 #5 Best Tip for Keeping Calm: Have a sense of humor

The kids definitely get to me sometimes. Maybe I have been alone with them for 4 days in a row without a break, or maybe it's been a solid 6 hours and they are in one of their screaming moods. Sometimes I have to stop, breathe, and think about the humor in the situation.

Everyone reacts differently, but if you can approach life with kids with humor, you are becoming a more approachable parent. No child wants to be honest and open with a reactive parent. When you are starting to lose it, just think about how other parents might approach this situation with humor.

Make no mistake, you are going to lose it with your kids, no matter how great your sense of humor is. There is a fair amount of yelling, and trantrumming of my own that goes on in this house. When that happens, I forgive myself, and move on. Laugh about how ridiculous it is to lose my cool to a 1.5 and 3 year old. Apologize to my kids for being crazy and work on it again tomorrow. Luckily they are forgiving.

Do you have any tips, products, or items that have saved your sanity? Share them here or on facebook!

As always, thank you so much for reading!