Tips to Get Kids to Sleep on time During Holiday Season
Twittermoms is having another contest, I love these contests they help us think of blog topics. Today’s is: What are your five tips & tricks for getting your kids to bed on time and getting them to stay in bed?
For those that don’t know Twittermoms is a great social site that has a ton of moms chitchatting and helping one another in a forum like setting. Stop on by and visit. For those that want to take part in the contest you can win a pink cozy, but you have to be one of the first 100 to post and leave a link. The only thing required is that I leave a link to http://www.dramau.net/ which has a bunch of videos for you to watch, which may get the kids to go to sleep and leave 5 tips.
TIPS:
1 Keep a Routine– Believe it or not those that continue with a routine it will make sending kids to bed at a regular bedtime that much easier, even during the holidays. The only hard issue may be telling the grandparents that a bedtime needs to be done on time, an extra hour could mess it up or start to show the child’s ugly side.
2 Get busy– For those that have a child that has a bazillion times more energy then the Energizer Bunny you may want to consider having them run around outside. But if it is too cold outside you can rough house or just play a bunch of games inside the house. Twister comes to mind and it is a very active game. Duck duck goose if you can clear a spot big enough.
3 Read Stories– you could begin doing one of those read-a-thons right before bed. You may even want to grab a dull, boring book if the fun ones don’t put them to sleep. Some parents give children Christmas themed books at the beginning of December to help the kids count down til Christmas. I haven’t tried it yet but I do love to give my kids books.
4 Do it or lose an hour– Call me a Scrooge but I’ve been known to tell the kids if they don’t go to bed or give me a hard time going to bed they go an hour early to bed the following day. No kid wants that.
5 Drive around– The one thing parents tend to do for babies to get them to sleep is to drive around town. You may want to try this on the kids that aren’t sleeping. If this is around Christmas you are sure to have Christmas displays and lights to look at so your kids can ooh and awe all night until they fall asleep.
With all that being stated on Christmas Eve I do tend have them watching Christmas movies and drinking hot chocolate on the floor. When I start to see eyes roll I send them properly to bed, if I have stragglers the last one must be in bed by 10pm as they all know that is when Santa flies into town and if they aren’t sleeping, he ain’t stoppin.
By the way if you stop by www.DramaU.net you can enter to win some nice St.Eve Kids sleepwear, which is perfect for the holidays. Don’t you think?
Do you have any tips on getting your kids to stay on a sleeping schedule?
