As winter is fast setting in, and I have a bit of extra time on my hands at the weekend, I thought I would do a post with my daily routine as an Au Pair.
6:45am
Alarm goes off and I get out of bed and get dressed, and this is definitely getting harder now it's so cold and dark in the mornings!
7am - 8am
Get the boys breakfast, and breakfast for myself as well as making Darragh's lunch. Make sure both the boys backpacks have everything they need in them, Cillian has a spare set of clothes and a water bottle for the car, Darragh has his coat, Reading Bag, lunchbox and water bottle. Then I sort it clothes for them and make their beds, stripping the beds every Monday. Next it's helping them brush their teeth and getting them to take their night time nappies out to the bin. The rules are no playing until they're ready which normally works for them to get ready quickly (well for Darragh anyway!) and then they either play with their toys or sometimes watch cartoons before we leave at 8am on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and around 8:25am on Tuesdays and Fridays.
8am - 9am
Set off to drop Cillian off first, apart from Fridays, normally have a few tears from him as he 'misses' his Mum, but normally it doesn't take him long to calm down thankfully! He's in the equivalent of a preschool room and they always have heaps of activities set out in the morning, but I've never managed to distract him with them! He always needs at least 2 cuddles, high fives and a kiss before I leave, and then we have to make funny faces through the door to him! If I forget to do any of the above it results in an emotional breakdown and I have learnt my lesson by now!! Then it's Darragh's turn to go to school, he's a first year, and a lot easier to drop off, I just need to remind him to take his reading bag out of his bag as he forgot a few times which meant he was coming home with the same book every evening. If everything goes to plan, it's normally just after 8:30 by the time Darragh's in school so I get home and finish tidying up before having my break.
9am -11:50am
This is where I have my break, on Tuesdays it's until 2:45pm and Fridays I don't get a break! I used to go for a run every morning, but I've gotten out of the habit and feeling pretty lazy plus its gotten really cold! So now I tend to faff around on social media for a bit, and I've been reading a large amount of books or catching up on tv! So not exactly the most productive break but I enjoy myself!
12pm
Pick up Cillian from kindy, then come home and get lunch sorted. He's a pretty slow eater so I normally plan for at least half an hour for lunch! We then do his sounds after we've finished, at the moment he knows 'm', 'n', 's', 'c', 'a', 'i', 'l' and 'd', I've been introducing a new sound each week and he's been doing really well! I then reinforce this with either jolly phonics, reading eggs (a really great app for learning to read, would really recommend it!) or a game I have made up. For example, I have made a garage with different letters on each space, then put a letter on each car. He has to match the car to the space and say the sound as it goes in. I try and keep this learning time up for as long as possible until he gets bored, and this really varies day by day!
1pm - 2:35pm
I then will have at least one other activity planned for Cillian and I to do with each other, and fill in the rest of the time with free play (which is normally playing with trains or cars!). Some example of actives we will do together are taking his scooter, bike or bat and ball down to the bay, an arts and craft activity, cooking and sometimes we leave early and go to a different play ground before picking Darragh up from school. We have to leave at around 2:35 as although it only takes around ten minutes to get there, sometimes it's near impossible to get a parking space, let alone a space close enough that they both won't whine at me for parking too far away!
3pm - 5pm
Normally I get to school a good ten minutes before the bell rings, so we wait outside the classroom for a wee bit before Darragh comes out, and he's normally one of the last ones! If the weather is half decent we play on the playground at the school for a bit before heading either home or to the scenic reserve. I then normally have at least one activity planned for the afternoon, and that's either a trip out to the reserve, library, bay or play date or some sort of craft - Darragh is super creative and it's always awesome to do crafty things with him as his imagination is awesome! At some point we do Darragh's reading homework, and if they've been good they can have 15 minutes on their tablet each. Other than that it's free play! I'm always constantly thinking about the balance between letting them just do what they want to do and me thinking up things to do to stop both them and me from getting bored. Sometimes it just doesn't work though depending on how tired they both are! Also, once or twice a week I will be making dinner, so I'll start to get the ready too.
5pm - 7pm
Normally by now, the boys will be playing on their own and I'll be helping with dinner or tidying round a bit. After eating, which takes a long time in Cillian's case, I'll either run a bath or bring their pyjamas down, and then they'll have dessert if they had a clean plate. Afterwards, it's free playing for a wee bit before brushing their teeth and sometimes reading them a story before bed. It kinda depends on how busy the motel is as to how involved I am in putting them to bed, but I always have to give them a kiss and a cuddle before hey go to sleep or they'll be back downstairs demanding one!
Fridays are slightly different, as I'll have Cillian all day and we'll go to mainly music at 9:30 then head to a playground with the other au Pairs, and potentially stay their until 2, with a packed lunch, if the weather is nice enough and they are enjoying themselves! Then after school the boys have football practice at 4:30 so Fridays are pretty busy and tend to go really quickly!
