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Back by popular demand, I’m sharing our easy to follow 15 month old schedule with one nap!
If you’ve been around here before, you know I’m a big fan of FLEXIBLE ROUTINES!
What do I mean? Having a baseline schedule so everyone in the family knows roughly what comes next on any given day.
Do we always follow our schedule to a T? Heck no.
Life with kids is unpredictable, plus some spontaneity keeps things exciting! Maybe we decide to go on an adventure one day and naps are on the go. That’s awesome! But for the days we are at home, we do have a general routine we follow.
Closer to 18 months? Check out our 18 month old sample schedule and daily routine here.
Work at home mamas, join my community and grab a free printable planner to start skyrocketing your productivity today!
Ok, here’s that schedule I’ve been promising.
Contents
Our 15 month old sleep schedule:
7:30 am wake up
1:00 pm nap
8:00 pm bedtime
Simple, right? So much easier than when she was a baby and I was trying to time 3-4 naps a day.
But I sure do miss those newborn snuggles… I’m lucky to get a half a second cuddle these days. Can anyone relate?? They grow up so darn fast.
Ok, next up… eating!
Our 15 month old feeding schedule:
Here’s where things get a little more interesting. Toddlers eat a TON!
8:00am milk
9:30am breakfast
10:30am snack
12:00pm lunch & milk
3:30pm snack
6:00pm dinner
7:30pm milk
If you ever find yourself at a loss for healthy snacks for your kids, you have to check out this article on 37+ toddler approved snack ideas for the whole family! Seriously, it’s a game-changer.
Ok, we’ve talked about eating and sleeping. Now let’s put it all together into our complete daily routine.
Our complete 15 month old schedule:
Let me preface this by saying I know my daughter sleeps in… but she also goes to bed later than most toddlers. I’ve tried putting her to bed earlier and it just doesn’t work, she ends up treating it like a nap and waking up to party at 11pm.
Sharing this schedule is meant to inspire you to create one based off your life with your little!
Also – we do encourage independent play. THIS IS STILL SUPERVISED. Never leave your toddler unattended.
Here’s a typical day in our life:
7:30am wake up & play in crib
8:00am milk, followed by independent play
9:00am play with mommy or chores with mommy
9:30am breakfast with mommy
10:00am head outside for a walk/park/errands
10:30 snack will be on the go.
12:00pm home for lunch, followed by quiet play with mommy
1:00pm nap time
3/3:30pm wake up & snack
4:00 activity with mommy or any other errands we need to run.
5:30 high chair activity while mommy cooks dinner
6:00 family dinner
6:30 outside play with daddy
7:30 bedtime routine (and milk) with mommy
The day is really broken up by meals. If you remove the times, it can be further simplified into something like this:
wake up & inside play/chores
breakfast
outside play/errands
lunch
afternoon nap
activity/errands
dinner
family time
bedtime routine
Keeping meals at consistent times really works well for us. Our toddler knows and even signs for breakfast around 9/9:30 if I haven’t mentioned it yet!
Also, it may be worth noting, this is our summer schedule. We prefer to be outside in the morning and evening when it isn’t so hot. In the fall/winter we tend to flip this to having activities in the house in the morning and getting outside in the afternoon.
Definitely take your environment into consideration in developing a basic routine!
Pin me for later 🙂
A 15 month old bedtime routine:
Since kids (and all humans, really) are creatures of habit, developing a solid bedtime routine is super helpful, so they know when to expect sleep.
I really love this article on developing a solid bedtime routine. We use many of these elements. It doesn’t have to be fancy, it just has to let them slow down and get ready for sleep.
Our toddler bedtime routine goes like this:
- bath (on bath nights)
- bottle
- books
- sleep sack & 2 lullabies
- crib & lights out
It takes about 30-40 minutes (not including bath). I find if I try to skimp out she’s much harder to put to sleep. I guess, like her mama, she just needs some significant quiet time to wind down from the day.
She’s also a total bookworm. She seriously loves nothing more than to read books, so I have to let her get tired of the books in the rotation before calling it a night, or she gets upset because she wasn’t “done” (tip – don’t have too many books out!).
Have you noticed if you interrupt your toddler from an activity they are enjoying that they get rather grumpy?
Has your toddler started waking up in the middle of the night? Check out this great article on how to tackle toddler night wakings!
Final thoughts on creating an ideal 15 month old schedule.
Every toddler is unique! Keep their personalities and tendencies in mind. Adapt other routines to create one that works for your family. And while routines are great, remember they don’t have to be rigid!
Having a basic routine has been really helpful in my blogging/work at home journey too, because I know when I can expect to actually get work done (mostly before she wakes up and during nap time is what works for me).
If you are a fellow work at home mama, check out this article on how to get more done working at home with toddlers!
That’s all for now!
Xo,
Kinzy
You might also like:
7 habits of ultra productive moms
3 key components of an empowering morning routine
How to get more done working at home with toddlers
I love how you broke it all down! So easy to follow! I’ve been trying to get a schedule for my 15 month old and this has given me some great ideas! Thanks for sharing!
Yay, I’m so glad it was helpful! 15 months is SUCH a fun age!