ds has started full time school and become a NIGHTMARE at bedtime

[foxinsocks]

now him being my second child, I can remember full well the delights of the deterioration in behaviour when they start full time school and get tired....

however, ds is fighting going to bed like there's no tomorrow even though he is exhausted. He shares a room with dd but he has started singing, mucking about, chatting, generally being a pain once they are in bed. If I turn out their light at 7.30, he carries on mucking about till around 8.30ish, sometimes later and then wakes up the next day and is really tired.

It's almost as though he's too wired to sleep. They have a normal bedtime routine, he starts football training tomorrow (which might wear him out a bit more) but I was wondering if anyone else had any magical tips or advice.

star chart?

dd has been a pita lately and I have just done one and yet again it has worked miracles

Yep, know that problem well.
I have dd2 who is so exhausted she falls asleep when her head hits the pillow, but dd1 who takes hours to unwind. Sounds like your son.

Only advice I can give you is not to let him watch tv or go on the computer for at least an hour before bedtime.
Have noticed that they make it harder for her to sleep if she does.

Oh and I limit her suger intake at tea time too. Without actually bringing it up to become a massive issue, no juice, no sweets no puddings etc. (this really does work IMO)

he loved his first star chart but I think it added about 10 years onto my life - him and dd fought about who was getting the most stars and when he didn't get his star, he'd go into major meltdown and it didn't seem to motivate him to behave better the next day (ggrrr).

I must watch his computer and TV usage - tomorrow I'll make sure he does neither and see if it makes a difference.

thanks both of you

He eats properly at home - I am slightly worried that this may be an effect of school dinners (both mine have them) because I know today he had spag bol (which sounds reasonable) followed by banana custard .

had same with dd - was total nightmare and have NO tips, I'm afraid! Oh, apart from a storytape on after stories and lights out helped a couple of times! hope it passes soon!

No advice to add but my dd started school last week and has been just the same. Was expecting her to be exhausted and fall into bed and instead she is up and down until nine.

This starting school lark is worse than childbirth!

aaah well if others are being the same, I won't worry too much (have visions of my evenings eroding away!)

Lol at star charts foxinsocks. Cant do that here due to highly competetive dd2. Drove me bonkers and they both ended up refusing to do anything unless they got a bleedin sticker. Brought out the worst in them: bartering, stealing others' stickers etc (I can laugh now as it was a while back)!

lol....that's exactly what happened here

dd actually offered ds one of her stars if he would let her play in her room on her own for a bit...

I nearly tore my hair out screeching nooooooo that is not how it works aarrgghh

I think once they can read, write and behave like sodding capitalists, then stars don't work

At least Foxy, you know they're switched on !