What is time?

One of the things have learned as a parent is that children like routine & predictability. I honestly think that part of the success we've had with Audrey lies partly in the fact that we have always tried very hard to maintain a predicable daytime routine with her. She feels in control, safe, and we don't have many struggles because we can always fall back on the argument that "we do this everyday."

However, on a weekly basis Audrey does not have a consistent routine. My husband works shift work and we have been fortunate to find a daycare provider that will work around our schedule. This saves us in childcare expenses and allows Audrey to spend quality time with her dad sans momma. Audrey loves playing with her daddy. I love their relationship and admittedly get jealous over the amount of time that they can spend together. The downside is that daycare days are always different days of the week and I am learning that this causes Audrey some anxiety. She has made it no secret that she would much rather stay at home with momma or dadda than go to daycare. A year and a half later I still have difficulty dropping her off in the AM and hate fielding "Do I have to go to XX's house tomorrow?"

Audrey understands that Momma doesn't work on Saturdays or Sundays so she gets to stay home. She knows some of the days of the week, and knows the words "tomorrow, yesterday, next week" but I'm not sure she knows the concepts. Which got me to thinking, how to you explain time to a child? Why do we bother giving a "5 minute warning" when a child has no concept of what "5 minutes" is? When she asked when the baby was coming I didn't really have an answer b/c to tell her in 6 months didn't mean anything to her.

At preschool, the teacher has this brilliant timer (like an analogue clock) that marks the chunk of time in red -- the red disappears as the time counts down and so "5 more minutes" also means "when the red is gone." This is a concept that I can understand. It gave me an idea. In an effort to help Audrey understand time and curb her anxiety, I made a calendar that we follow along with together each night. I color coded the calendar with days for daycare, days for preschool and days at home. We put stickers on important days, such as birthdays. I explain to her how the days of the week work and what months are, but the purpose of the calendar is that at the end of each day Audrey helps me put a line through the current day and is able to see what color the next day is so she can mentally prepare herself.

It is an experiment that we've just started the month of October, but it seems to have really helped. Children are such amazing beings and understanding how they learn has been fascinating to me. And if I can get a happier little girl out of it -- that is the icing.