As the Summer is coming to a close, I’ve put together a 3 part series of my tricks on how to wrangle monkeys into counting sheep. I hope that you’ll return over the next two weeks to learn more about how to get your family back on track for school.
Part 1: "I Said Go To Bed!"
I’d like to think of myself as a children’s sleep advocate. What I mean is that I am a true believer that good sleep is one of THE most important factors in children’s overall health and wellness, and without the proper amount of sleep, a child’s health can suffer greatly. There are a few tricks that I practice to help get my daughters on track and I am a steadfast believer that a dependable ROUTINE is the key element to their sleeping success.
I am however human and guilty of letting my girl’s fall into bad sleep habits, particularly in the summer! It occurred to me a few nights ago at 10:00 PM as my 6 year old and I were snuggled in my bed watching Funny Girl that school is just a few weeks away. I began to worry how I was ever going to get us all back on track before school starts. So, I decided the time had come to take charge, get organized and come up with a plan! By creating a simple plan, that gently eases your kids back into a routine, you can get them into the swing of school without the battles that come when change happens.
Create a sleep calendar, similar to the one I've shown above, backing up at least 10 to 14 days from the first day of school. It’s important to note that it definitely takes more than a few days to get your children used to a new schedule, so make sure to allow yourself enough nights to adjust their bedtime, earlier. As you can see, I create a separate color coded schedule for each of my daughters since they have different bedtimes. The 15 minutes you pull back bedtime each night will be so gradual that your kids will be back on school time, pain free!
Over the next two weeks, I'll be posting more tricks-of-the-mom-trade that have worked for me; Hopefully, they will work for you as well!
Sleep Well,
Courtney