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Northern California Babies
Transition from naptime to quiet time?
I think we need to try quiet time instead of naptime for my 3.5 year old - 2 reasons: first is that it's getting impossible to get him to nap and second is that if he does nap, he is up until 9-10pm, which doesn't work well since our 15 month old goes to bed early and wakes up early. For my sanity, I need their bedtime and wake-ups coordinated as much as possible.
Anyway, my question is how to you get your 3.5 year old to have quiet time on his own, in his bedroom? Mine won't stay or won't stay quietly if I lock the door. What type of activities does your child do during quiet time? He has books in his room, but no other toys. Finally, when you first started quiet time, how long was quiet time? Did you try to gradually increase that time?
Thanks!
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Re: Transition from naptime to quiet time?
I've tried to phase out (more like banish) nap time because DS then can not fall asleep before 10 pm and he needs to be up earlish and ready to leave for school three days a week. The only saving grace for me in this scenario is that at about the same time as when he'd prefer to nap some days (3:30), he will usually ask for some milk and a quiet tv show. He'll lay on the couch (or in our bed) and watch his show and have his milk and ta da, 40 minutes later, he's refreshed enough to make it through dinner/bath/bed at a time I'd prefer (about 8).
For DS, he wouldn't be able to manage playing alone quietly in his room during that time. He's extra needy when he's tired and if he isn't soothed by one of us, he needs distraction, which thankfully Caillou provides. Would M sit and watch a show for a while to let his body rest without actually sleeping? Would that be okay with you?
Tyson doesn't have a quiet bone in his body. Quiet time here is hit or miss: depends greatly on what we did in the morning. If we didn't do anything super active, quiet time is typically a bust. If we were super busy, it works like a charm and every once in a while he actually falls asleep.
We recently moved toys into his room, bought him one of those bin organizers and a book rack. He loves to play in his room, it's just not quiet. If he is being particularly loud and runs the chance of waking up Jake, I move him to the playroom where he'll play at the train table, lego table, or read books. If I need some quiet time, I'll put him up in the play room with the portable DVD player and let him pick a movie (only downside is that he'll yell if there is any sort of skip, stop, or technical glitch).
I thought quiet time would solve our late bedtime issues, but even if he doesn't nap he'll go down around 8:30/9- it takes him a long time to unwind and the end of the day and decompress enough to go to sleep.
I instilled fear of losing everything in his room very early. At about his age, I told him that if I see or hear him get out of bed, every toy that I can see will be removed from his room (it helps that I had a video monitor and he knew that the camera was ON him.) It didn't take him long to learn that I was serious. The first day, every book he owned got taken out (in a big dramatic fashion). The second day, any toy that I could find...etc. After a few days of that, I let him earn them back by staying in bed. Sometimes he'd sleep and other times he wouldn't.
I also told him that if he didn't rest, he wouldn't be able to watch one of his shows after dinner and that he'd have to go to bed super early (like before his sister). That helped too.
I'm the bedtime nazi though. And everyone here knows it.