Life with Small Children in Rural Alaska

Many of my readers, I believe, are stay at home moms.  And many of them wonder how I do what I do.  I assure you, I am not a perfect mom.  It takes constant vigilance and creativity to keep these boys happy & entertained while we are locked in the house for months at a time!

Sanity starts and ends with a good routine.  When I was struggling with anxiety, the schedule brought much needed continuity to our days.

A typical week day for us looks like this:

6:30am Good morning, Mommy

The boys wake up and come in our room, announcing that the light is green.

Josh showers while I have the boys get dressed & make their beds.

I shower while Josh feeds the boys breakfast and has them brush their teeth.

8:00am Bye Daddy

Josh leaves for work and our day begins.

Sometimes we watch cartoons for a bit in the morning while I finish getting the house ready, putting away dishes, switching laundry & waking the house up.

9:00am School for the twins

We move into the playroom where we do their math, writing and daily journals.

While we work, Wyatt does ABC Mouse on the iPad.  He loves it!

Sometimes he joins us or does puzzles.

10:30am Morning Snack

Usually something simple like Goldfish or a granola bar

11:30am Lunch

Josh joins us for lunch everyday, which makes us all very happy.  We eat as a family at the table and afterwards he heads back to work and the boys and I head upstairs to read stories before nap time.  Stories before nap time is a new habit, and one that I love.  It settles the boys after lunch, gets them an extra three books each day, and allows me a little extra snuggle time, which is my favorite.

12:15pm Nap Time

Once we are done reading, one twin stays in my room for silent reading, and the other twin goes downstairs for silent reading.  Meanwhile, I take Wyatt into his room to lay him down for nap time.  We turn on the fan, his humidifier and the bedtime CD and he snuggles in.

12:30pm Reading

After Wyatt is down for his nap, the twins and I focus on reading.  They take turns reading to me while the other brother does his time on ABC Mouse.  This allows for awesome one on one time and the boys have thrived on this new routine.

1:30pm Quiet Play Time

When the boys finish reading they can play quietly in the playroom or at the kitchen table.  They often play sand or Imaginext.  While they play, I get a chance to read or blog.  This is my "me" time.

2:30pm Wake Up

I make sure Wyatt is awake by 2:30pm.  Most days he is already up, but if he's not, I wake him up in order to preserve bedtime.  We all have afternoon snack, and then head outside, weather permitting.

5:00pm Dinner

I usually try to get dinner going by 5:00pm so we can eat by 5:30pm.  After we eat the boys clear the table, brush their teeth and get on pajamas.

6:15pm Bedtime Stories

By 6:15pm, we are heading upstairs for story time, boys all brushed and wearing jammies.  We read three books, one for each boy, then go potty and tuck them in bed.  After hugs, kisses and prayers, we walk out the door at 7:00pm.

After bedtime I head downstairs, do the dishes and read, blog or watch TV.  I also work hard to prepare for the next day-- tidying the playroom, prepping for the next days' dinner and making sure the house is clean before I go upstairs at 9:00pm.

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Entertainment

How do I entertain the kids? Honestly, some days, there's a lot of TV. But other days, we go outside, no matter the weather.  We play in 0 degrees, and we have been known to play in the rain.  We love when there's snow to play in, but we aren't afraid of mud.  Spring time usually brings with it daily baths, as the boys are filthy every time we come in from outside.

Another trick to surviving life in rural Alaska with small children is that I rotate the toys.  We use those Rubbermaid Totes I told you about to store toys in the playroom closet, and every few weeks I pull out a new tote and place some oft-used toys in its place to give the playroom a sense of excitement!

I also enforce alone time for the boys, sending one upstairs with some toys and leaving another downstairs with some toys so they can work on their independent play.  When they play together, they tend to fight, which means I end up playing referee, and sometimes, I just need a break!

Bath time is another sanity saver.  The boys love to have long baths, bringing in toys and turning into prunes from soaking.  I love throwing them in the tub. It's a great mood changer, and gives them (again) some much needed alone time.

We are also big on tag readers, tablets, and the sand I mentioned earlier.

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Bikes

The boys love riding their bikes.  Someone mentioned that it looks like they are ready for bigger bikes, and let me assure you, they have bigger bikes in Washington!  This is our second year with these bikes up here, so they are definitely a tight fit!  We're not sure yet if we'll ship their bigger bikes up this fall.  We'll have to wait and see. The first year they hardly rode at all (too much snow), but this year they have ridden a bunch. Little brother has requested a bike for his birthday, and I am all too happy to oblige. I can hardly wait!

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Saturday Social

Saturday Social is the boys' absolute favorite activity.  It runs from 10am to 12pm Saturday at the school for eligible (well behaved) students who earned it during the week.  The kids can play on scooters, run in the gym, play basketball, play xbox or have computer time.  There is also a student store that's open during Saturday Social where the kids can get popcorn and slushees.  If they have a high enough percentage, they get those items free. If they didn't earn them, they can pay cash.

Saturday Social is run on a volunteer basis by the teachers and principal.  Some weeks there's only two teachers, some weeks there are many more. It just depends.  Same with students. Sometimes there's a ton of kids, other weeks there are only a few.

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Gearing Up

Hands down, the worst part about having three small children in rural Alaska is gearing them up.  I will admit it is easier now than when we first got here (and had two 3 year olds and a six month old), but it still feels like getting ready happens at a snails' pace.  First it's pants and shirts and socks.  Then it's gloves and sweaters and snow pants.  Then it's big coats, mittens and snow boots.  Then hats and scarves.  Times three. Plus myself.  

Then, when we get where we're going, there's the "ungearing", which can take just as long as the gearing up.  And after the event is done, we get to gear up again, come home, and "ungear" again. Oh for joy.

The single most frustrating thing is putting gloves on small, chubby hands.  I have decided that mittens were created so adults would not kill small children after the seventh attempt to get all five fingers in the appropriate spaces in a tiny pair of gloves.  

Some notes on gear--  For the muddy season we're in right now, I swear by rain pants and Croc boots.  The croc boots are my favorite because the boys can walk into a knee deep puddle, fill their boots with water, and when we get home, I simply dump the boot out, and dry the inside with a towel.  Their old boots had material inside that took days to dry.  The new Croc boots are a revelation!

For snow, we like overall snow pants because the boys tend to roll around in the snow, and overalls keep the snow away from their bodies.  It's also important the snow pants be waterproof, especially when we play out for a long time.  Gloves need to be waterproof as well.  For our feet, we all wear Sorels.  They are plenty warm and last forever.

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Friends

The boys' friends here include some of the teachers' children and also children from the village.  For the most part, we play at the playground with our friends.  We also see them at Saturday Social.

My friends here are mostly teachers.  We get together whenever we can.

We also work hard to stay in touch with family and friends back home, calling and writing letters.  That way in the summer, the kids remember them!

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Penpals

Speaking of friends, Amy asked if we would be interested in having penpals.  The answer is a resounding YES! If you send us a letter, a post card or a package, we will do our best to write you back.  We LOVE getting mail, and I LOVE sending mail, so if you're interested, drop us a line!

Cunningham Family

PO Box 153

Marshall, AK 99585

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We are nearing the end of the Rural Alaska Living Series.

Tomorrow is The BEST and WORST of life in rural Alaska

& Saturday we conclude with Weather in rural Alaska

I hope you've enjoyed the series.

Please keep the questions coming, even if I don't ask for them.

I save them up for future rural Alaska posts!