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This is Nate’s last week of preschool. Isabella is already out of school. It’s hard to believe summer break is upon us. Here in Western Washington we deal with long days — the sun goes down after 9 pm. The kids, of course, love it. It’s harder on mom and dad though. {My kids are 8 and 4.}
During the school year, we have a pretty strict bedtime with both kids. Honestly, not just bedtime, but we stick to a schedule pretty closely. It helps my kids to have that routine and my husband and I desperately need it too. The Summer break? Well, that routine gets more easily disrupted.
Parents, how do you deal with summer bedtime?
We let the kids stay up one hour later during the summer – which equates to 8:30 pm. Often, we’ve found that it inches closer to 9 pm. Here are tips that have worked for us.
Simple Summer Bedtime Tips
1. Try to Stick to the Same Time – kids do well with adequate sleep. If that means 10 pm until 8 am or, if like us, you do 8:30 pm to 7 am, it’s great for the whole family to stick to the same time as often as you can.
2. Routine – like adequate sleep, kids thrive with a structured routine. I realize not everyone does this with their family. But we’ve noticed that our children do very well with a structured routine. Our nightly routine includes giving the kids 30 minutes to get ready for bed. Bath or shower, brush teeth, mouthwash, video or story, and prayer.
3. Dark Curtains – as I mentioned in Washington the sun goes down late. We invested in night blinds for the bedrooms in the house.
4. Be Flexible – I know, I just told you that time and routine is so important, but it’s summer break! We plan a lot of fun experiences for our family in the summer. So it’s good to be flexible. The kids enjoy the summer break here in Washington state!
Our summer bedtime routine is much easier when we have fun oral care products. We buy the Firefly Spiderman Fun Pump Rinse exclusively for my son. He loves swishing it around each night before bed. He also just celebrated his fourth birthday and got a new Kylo Ren Lightsaber toothbrush. This toothbrush lights up for 60 seconds, teaching kids to brush for one full minute on each row of teeth. He cannot wait to use it.
Anything to help with our bedtime is appreciated by me!
{You can find the Spiderman Rinse and Kylo Ren Toothbrush at your local Walmart.}
I’d love to hear how you deal with summer bedtime and the kids? Please leave me a comment. And be sure to check out great Firefly products for the kids — it helps with the bedtime routine!
