Good Night, Sleep Tight

Here is a startling truth: We are less than one month away from school starting. Yikes! Have your kids been staying up later than they usually do? To make the start of the school year more peaceful, start practicing "school year bedtimes" now.

Preschoolers need between 10 and 12 hours of sleep at night but that is often shortened by "Can I stay up a little longer?" and "I need a drink of water." Children thrive on schedules and routines during most of their day, why not extend a routine to bedtime? An easy way to begin that process is to make a picture schedule. Sit down with your child and brainstorm what your bedtime routine includes. This is a good time to address common bedtime issues such as how many drinks of water they can have or how many times they can call you into the room.

Here are some examples of traditional components:

Bath
Put on pajamas
Brush teeth
Find teddy bear or other security object
Read a book
Listen to music
Sing a song

Next, take pictures of these actions with your camera or draw pictures of the components and paste them in the order that you do them on a strip of paper. I made my routine strip with pictures cut from magazines:



Close-ups:





Hang it at your child's level for easy reference. Children are more likely to follow these homemade picture schedules since they will take pride in having made them. It will also help your child become more independent as some of these components can be done on their own. Staying consistent with routines helps your child feel more comfortable and they are more likely to complete the task without complaints when they know what is expected of them. Don't limit your routine strips to bedtime, they can apply to anything!