^ That would be a “fake-nap” at Indiana Beach on Labor Day :)
Max still naps just fine most days, but Alex (3 years, 8 months) is giving us a lot of trouble about naps lately. Today, he’s napping nicely in his bed. More and more often, though, he’s causing trouble when she should be sleeping. One day last week, he snapped off the slats on his vinyl window blinds when we thought he was napping. A while back, he pulled all the stuffing out of his pillow. He often wakes Max or keeps Max from falling asleep. (They share a room.)
We’ve tried putting him in our bedroom, but then he just gets into mischief in there. (He’s a pretty good kid, by the way. I think he just acts out when he’s bored.) We’re thinking that maybe we’re nearing the point of no more naps for Alex.
My sister suggested trying audio books. He has to lay still in bed until the audio book ends, and chances are, he’ll doze a bit. Once the story ends, he can slip out of bed quietly without waking his brother. I downloaded a Dr. Seuss compilation today, so we’ll give that a try later this week. I’m hoping this works!
If it doesn’t work, I’d like to try a “quiet time” on the living room couch or “blanket time” where he has to play quietly while staying on the blanket on the living room floor. What sort of quiet time activities have you tried with your little boys? What has worked for your kiddos? How do you KEEP him quiet for an hour so the littler ones don’t wake? (And, to be honest, so I can have an hour to regain my sanity…)
Also, does anyone know of a reasonably priced place to get audio books? (to buy a CD or to download) Alex really wanted a Thomas one, but Audible.com said it couldn’t be purchased in my country…which is the U.S. He loves Curious George, Franklin, Arthur, etc.
I’d love to hear your suggestions! Thanks! :)
8 comments:
When you find a good suggestion, Dawn, let me know!! Just after Channing turned 2 he was being VERY naughty during nap time and then he wouldn't sleep at bedtime. WE got rid of nap time for him......Dully is reaching the point where he's not going to sleep until 9pm if he takes a nap (he still does most days)......I like to have my boys in bed between 6:30-7pm (early for some people but my kids get up at 5:45 on the dot!)........I'd LOVE for them to have a rest time - let me know if the audio books work - I'll definitely give it a whirl if it does!
I liked this idea from No Time For Flash Cards:
http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2010/11/quiet-time-1-2-3.html
Does your library have a good selection of audio books? We find a lot of books on cd that way, and our library also has overdrive, so we can download books/audiobooks to ipod.
I agree, I need to keep naps (or quiet time) for my sanity.
Good Luck!
Hey count your blessings.. My oldest (turning 4 in Oct) stopped taking naps at 20 months. He told me that naps were for babies and that he wasn't a baby anymore. And now my youngest (2 1/2 years) has started to not take naps.. We try to have a quiet time after lunch somethimes we watch a disney movie or we read books. We dont have cable or dish. So its just movies at our house.
Good luck
By the way thanks again for your downloads. My boys and I really enjoy them
You could record yourself, or other members of your family and friends (Grandpas or older males have great voices to make you fall asleep), reading books you already own, and use those as audio books. I know lots of teachers that do this in their classrooms.
If you have an iPod you could try the same thing but with music. He has to lay still in bed until a certain song is done. With an iPod you could have him put head phones on so he doesn't disturb his brother. Plus he would get to play with mommies COOL toy.
Ms. M
Ms.M's Blog
A Teacher's Plan
When Its nap time is when my girls get to watch a movie, some times they doze off (they usually do) or they just have quiet time watching the movie. It is what works best for me.
Probably repeat suggestions, already, but here goes: Stop calling it nap time. It is quiet time, and he is only required to be quiet, not nap (this one thing guarantees he will nap more often). Being quiet means: quietly looking at books, listening to recorded books (mine listened to the same ones over and over), listening to music, or doing a very quiet activity (like building things out of puff balls, pipe cleaners, cotton balls). Tell him that you need to have this quiet time, because otherwise you become cranky, and then you are not a nice mom to be around, and he doesn't want a mean mom for the rest of the day, does he? This was how I did it with all three of my boys (now grown), and it has been used successfully for several of my day care children I have now, as well. If your library doesn't have Overdrive, you need to bug them to get it - so many wonderful recorded books!
Thank you, ladies! I love the No TIme for Flashcards ideas!
We don't have Overdrive at our library, but since two of you have mentioned it, I checked out of curiousity and my parents' library system offers Overdrive. Hmmmm...is that cheating?
LOTS of great ideas. We're going to start with the audio books & go from there.
We do a quiet time now for our barely 3 year old. Sporadically, he will fall asleep, but usually he just spends 60-90 minutes in his room playing a few chosen activities for the day and reading books. It has worked great and he doesn't even fight me even more. He almost acts if he is excited for the time to himself!
Also, I just wanted to share with you the release of my first Pre-K Pack! It's Halloween themed! I made mention of you in my post today too. You can find the Pre-K Pack here: http://overthebigmoon.blogspot.com/2011/09/halloween-pre-k-pack.html
Thanks to you and some other sites inspiring me to start making them! Thanks again!
Pam @ www.overthebigmoon.com!
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