What happens to your bedtime routine in the summer months? Is it as hard to find as bug-spray is? Now that Elijah and Nevaeh are older, I’m able to give a little when it comes to bedtime in the summer months. When the kids were toddlers though, I kept a bedtime the same throughout the year – since they were not in school the summer months weren’t any different than any other time of the year.
Now that Elijah is going into grade 2, and Nevaeh will be starting preschool in the Fall, I’ve been more lenient with bedtime this summer – since the fall will surely bring in earlier bedtimes for tired kids. Unfortunately, a later bedtime in my house does not mean my kids sleep in much longer than a half hour or so extra (but I take when I can get!)
One trick that we utilize since it’s still a little light out when the kids go to bed most nights, is putting a large piece of cardboard in the window to block the light. It’s cut to fit exactly inside the window frame (custom, ha!) My husband and I were trying to figure out how to block out light without using tin foil in the windows (even though our windows face the backyard I still don’t like the look of tinfoil in the windows) and it occurred to me that we had a large cardboard box in the garage that might just do the trick.
The best part is that it can be removed each morning, letting the sunshine in!
Dr. Nicky Cohen, Clinical Psychologist, offers great summer-sleep-tips in the Parents section of the DisneyJunior.ca site for parents looking for ways to get their little lightening bugs off to sleep. Check out the Parent section on Disney Junior for more great articles for the entire family, including this one on summer activity ideas for the kids (which also includes an easy, healthy, Popsicle recipe!)
If, after reading Dr. Nicky Cohen’s article, you still have sleep questions, here’s your chance to get them personally answered! Check out the Disney Junior Canada Facebook page and post your question for Dr.Nicky Cohen there – vote for a question already submitted or add your own. She will answer the top 5 questions!
Disclosure: I’m part of the Disney Junior Mom program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.
Hey – have you seen these?
http://www.gro.co.uk/Gro-Anywhere-Blind.html
Cravings in Saskatoon has them if you want to check them out… 🙂
A nifty idea – but we slowly started taking down the black cloth we had up in our son’s room – and now he’s adapted to sleeping when it’s lighter out…. which I like better…but for awhile when he was getting up at 6am in the spring, the dark cloth helped! I think if he had that prob again tho, that I’d consider getting one of these. 🙂
It’s 11:30 and my kids just fell asleep although I put them to bed at 9. They weren’t running around they were just reading and chatting in their beds, but still — that’s crazy!