Get to sleep… now!

Bedtime… it can be a struggle. I don’t understand why kids don’t like bedtime! After a long day of working, mom-ing, and all the things in between, bedtime has become one of the things I don’t play about. 7:30 PM. (I may bend every now and then, but not often at all.) Here are a few tips for getting your kids down to bed as smooth as possible.

• Create a schedule/chart that’s visible for the kids. The chart can use large lettering for your children who can read but use photos for the children who can’t read just yet. This helps them look forward to what’s next.

• Set alarms that you and the kids recognize. I have alarms that go off all throughout the day on my phone with ringtones both the kids and I remember. At 7 PM, my alarm goes off every 5 minutes leading up to 7:30. This helps us transition smoothly from downtime after dinner to brushing teeth to story and prayer, and then to bedtime. [Now, when dad’s away, one of the kids always pops up to “protect me” or as they like to say, “so I’m not lonely”.  It’s so cute!]

• Put the kids to bed awake. My older kids get to read books most nights until they fall asleep. Other nights, they may get to play games on the kindle, but it turns off automatically after a certain time.

• Put the “baby” to bed awake too! I have done it all with my infants: co-sleep, bed in my room, sleep in their room… all of the options. What has been the most fruitful for our family, once the newborn phase is over, is to train them to fall on their own and not to rock them to sleep!

Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

Wake-up time is not easy either! (Can I get a witness?) When you start waking kids up, they always want to sleep in later. When I’m almost done with breakfast, I call on the baby monitor for everyone to get up. I give them 5 minutes of whining then I do a last call!

• Checklist time. They begin working on their checklists when they get up. They have a chalk sign of all the things they need to do before they leave their room.