Bedtimes for 6 and 8 year olds?

[Expat1986]

I feel ridiculous for asking this question, but it's genuinely confusing me.

My 6 and 8 years olds share a room (as the 8 year old freaked herself out sleeping on her own).

There is a bit of messing around at bedtime, so I brought it forward so there was time built in for messing about, an audiobook and the tramping up and down the stairs.

But now I'm wondering if I've pushed it too early.

We go up at 6:30 for teeth, pyjamas and game (which takes about 15 minutes). So they are in bed by about 6:50pm. Then there is a 30 minute audiobook.

Messing about has continued until about 8:30pm most nights. It feels a little bit late as they are both up by 6-6:30am as DH crashes around getting ready for work.

Am I putting them into bed too early? Should I let them stay up later?

My 6yo (7 in June) has a bath at 6.30, in bed for 7.15 then we read together until 7.30 and lights out. We get up at 6am.

Our 7 year olds sleep pattern has changed a lot over the last year. He was going to be at 7 and waking at around 6.30, but now tends to go to sleep after 8 (so bed at 7.30, lights out at 8/8.15). He still gets up around 6.30.

My 7 year old goes up at 8.40ish and then we read a story together till 9pm. He’s up every day without fail at 5 or 6am. He doesn’t like to sleep!

It seems a bit early to me. We go up between 7 and 7.30 and then read until between 8 and 8.30. The dc are 7 and 8 (but we were going th3 same wh3n dd2 was 6).

6.30 is really early for primary aged kids.

Half the time I'm not home with my kids until 6pm. After school closes at 6.00. There's still dinner to sort, homework and unwind time.