Bedtime and Back to School

You are only days away from your little ones returning to school. Some may be sad and others may be jumping up and down for joy. Let's face it, as a working parent, the summer break can be hard on your routine and your pocket book. 

Summertime bedtimes are often a hard habit to break. We're still teetering between Daylight Savings and the fact that it doesn't get dark until about 9pm. That makes it hard for our kids when we try to get them to get a good nights sleep. Something we started doing with our boys has helped us tremendously. It's saved our sanity when preparing for our get back to school year routines. 

We bought our sons blackout shades. This helps to make their room the dark calm environment it needs to be for a good nights rest. Something we have done with them since they were little is play music. Not everyone agrees with it, but it works for our boys. When getting back in the routine of an early bedtime, we start in 15 minute increments. If they have stayed up until 9pm and we want them in bed at 7pm for school, we look at how long it will take to get us back there. It takes us about a week and a half.  

We are currently 30 minutes away from our bedtime goal. Yes, our boys go to bed at 7pm. They need the sleep and their parents need their sanity. They have to be at school by 7:15 am. That's early! Our mornings start at 5:30 am. So 7pm works for us. Keep in mind these goals don't happen overnight. So start now if you haven't, so everyone has a smooth transition getting back to school. I promise, their teachers will thank you!