How do start 'quiet time' when naps stop.

[Jsgdud]

My 2.2 year old has just stopped napping. I'm trying to introduce quiet time instead now. At the moment, I take him up to his bedroom and give him a special blanket, some books etc and he amuses himself whilst I potter around upstairs. Most he has done so far is 5 mins before he says all done and comes to get me. How can I start to build this up or is he too young still?

TV

Was the only thing that kept mine quiet and still for an hour. She really needed the rest, mental and physical, but without TV would never have sat still for long enough.

@minipie
I did think that but I already put the TV on for him before dinner whilst I cook so didn't really want it on for another hour then too!

I have posted this before - and yes it is a bit immoral / bad taste but it got me through the years 2-5 ish
Me and my DD used to play 'mummy in a coma' in the afternoons / evenings.
She would dress up as a nurse and I would be the patient (in her bed) and she would make sure all her toys were v v quiet so as not to wake me, she would have a little clipboard/ chart thing to monitor me (drawing lines!) and a pretend stethoscope.
She would tell people that we would play together for hours (!)
It was a sad day when she twigged just how crap a mum I was

We did chill time together. Cup of tea for me, cup of milk for them, and an episode or two of something on the sofa plus a bit of reading.

I introduced the Toniebox at this age. The one that my dc first got into was the Little Red Riding Hood figure. That box really built up his concentration and independence.

If you don’t mind spending some money, look up theworkspaceforchildren on Instagram. She has an online course for setting your children up for quiet time. So far where I’ve got to, it’s been mostly about recognising what your kid needs to be in optimal play mode. So knowing the toys that can really hold their attention etc. Think it’ll work out to be quite useful. She definitely says from 2 is a great age to start and building up time gradually is good too.

From what I remember, you need to work at it for a bit. Both of mine had ‘quiet time’ in their rooms from around 2 and have since always been quite good at amusing themselves.

I think I used to provide a few activities - jigsaw, Playmobil mini world, tray with letters, books with a comfy place to read etc etc.

When they appear, send them back with a task to do and after a while the period of time gets longer.

It did take a while to get them into the swing of things.

I used the Groclock. So some days they would nap, but on the days they didn’t they would know it wasn’t time to get up until the clock changed colour. I provided plenty of books and I think this helped them both become keen readers. They also had CD players and story CDs, as well as toys. One dd always ‘read’, the other quite often played. I also modelled it myself, so they would see me lying on my bed reading.

Just turn on the telly.

Don't be afraid to rely on the tv for a break, I used it a lot and my two are both unscarred by it'