This tiredness 'thing' at school for Reception year pupils...

[HyacinthB]

Is it inevitable?

I was told when dd went to Pre School 'oooh she'll be tired, prepare for her to conk out after a session here'. She loved Pre School but she came home as wired as an ever ready battery as she often is...

Again, people say that she'll be cream crackered after school...appreciate it is early days (only 2 days into Reception)- but again, she seems completely unruffled by whole thing and spent the afternoon post school trampolining...

Will this tiredness thing hit her later, or are some children 'immune' ?

(would love for her to come home physically spent and collapse on the sofa actually)

lol hyacinth at your supergirl!

Maybe she will be immune to it; I have to say with pre-school, I never found ds as shattered as people said he would be at all; in fact I felt it helped keep him on a more even keel in life, he had more to deal with and think about, and WAS more tired, so he was easier to entertain at home and had less capacity for tantrums!

as regards reception, I will find out next week, and let you know! gulp...

my DS has been tired today and yesterday but he was sort of "hyper tired" rather than floppy on the sofa tired which is more exhausting for me!

My DS is like that, hyacinth! I've spent all summer foolishly thinking "when he starts at school, he'll have less energy......" only to come back down to earth with a bump this afternoon when he was as energetic as always! I should have learnt after playschool, but........

On the upside, I'm still hoping that it will give him more food for thought and his behaviour did even out during his time at playschool as he wasn't quite as bored, i think.

HB I was spun this myth about children being tired out by school too. Don't fall for it. Mine was, if anything, less exhausted by a 9-3 day than by the nursery days of 8-6 that she'd been doing since she was a tiddler. Still bouncing at 9pm and up at the crack of dawn or earlier every day!

It was true in my DD's case, she spent 2 hours of her first afternoon at reception curled up on a beanbag in the wendy house, asleep!

I'm not expecting ds1 to be made 'sleepy tired' by school, not at all. More the emotionally overwrought and overstimulated kind of tired....! expect he will sleep LESS well, but be more tired....

I think elliott decribes the effect on DS really well. Although he was still getting 11.5 hours a night. And also he seemed a bit run down so picked up lots of illnesses more easily - I realise that this was partially from being exposed to a new community of germs but am convinced his resistance was also affected.

I was very scornful that it would affect him like that beforehand because I reasoned that he had been used to day nursery from 8 until 5.30, school from 9 until 3.30 should be a snip. I was wrong.

Also nursery was only 3x a week.

I think elliott decribes the effect on DS really well. Although he was still getting 11.5 hours a night. And also he seemed a bit run down so picked up lots of illnesses more easily - I realise that this was partially from being exposed to a new community of germs but am convinced his resistance was also affected.

I was very scornful that it would affect him like that beforehand because I reasoned that he had been used to day nursery from 8 until 5.30, school from 9 until 3.30 should be a snip. I was wrong.

sorry

when my dd1 started school, one of her classmates was always falling asleep in the afternoon, on may occassions she had to be carried out of the classroom! Although i did wonder if it was because she went to a day nusery before she started where they always had a rest/nap in the afternoon.

Coudl well kick in at the weekend or certainly by half term.

DD1 wasn't physically tired so much as emotionally and intellectually exhausted by having to behave, follow the rules, work out the social nuances, listen, absorb information and exert unusual levels of self-control all day, five days a week, every week. She needed and still needs time to 'chill' after school. It could be anything - watching TV, playing on the computer or bouncing on a trampoline as long as she doesn't have to interact with adults or other children and it can't go wrong! She also needs to eat something almost as soon as she gets home.

DS is totally immune to the 'tiredness' thing .. he's just gone into year 1 (today)

always has been

also remains wired

has playdates most nights till 6ish .. not every .. but most

I remember DDs first term in reception being long and emotional.

It doesn't help that, as well as the excitement and upheaval of starting school, they also have the build-up to Christmas ! As term progresses they start singing carols, making Xmas stuff etc and then theres the nativity, Carol Services, parties etc. - all adds to the excitement !

By the time they break up, believe me, they are ready for the break (and so will you be ).

Hope they are all settling in well

We found last year with Ds that it was a sort of "cumulative tiredness" that meant towards the end of term he was pale, edgy and a bit unpredictable (DS is normally fairly low maintenance). Towards the end of the summer term, our nanny said that it was almost like he was fading away before our eyes. That's why I was a bit gobsmacked at people having "lessons" in the holiday - DS really just needed to play on the climbing frame, spend afternoons in the tent in the garden, have a few picnics with friends and do a lot of low-level squabbling with his younger sister to recharge his batteries.

The other thing we found in the first term was that he found being well behaved and engaged at school quite tiring. We had some (out of character) volcanic temper tantrums usually just before bed time which left both of us exhausted. His teacher was very surprised when I mentioned it at parent's evening as she said he had been unfailingly helpful, cooperative, lively and polite.

So I think DS did get very tired, but not the sort of tiredness which manifested itself in being tired at bedtime!

We "transformed" his lunchtime nap into "quiet time" when he took a few toys into his bedroom and played quietly by himself - a bit of lying on his bed humming tunelessly with a couple of pieces of playmobil really helped.

My DSs were both the same as Issymum's DD - in DS1's case he was more stroppy and unpredictable, in DS2\s case he just wanted to veg.

DD is never bloody tired

Exactly Anchovy. We all noticed just how much 'easier' DD1 was on Sundays and during the holidays when she was truly rested. BTW she doesn't do any work on Saturdays, but she's still affected by the cumulative effect of the school week!

On the same theme, DD1 fell into a pattern of a Saturday morning tantrum. It seemed like she needed to release all the tension of the week in one big blow-out. We craftily got round this by bundling her off to a 9.30am ballet class. Somewhat unexpectedly in the maelstrom of getting her into the class she overlooked having a tantrum and when she'd finished the class and scoffed a bag of celebratory crisps, she seemed to be over it. I must have been the only ballet-mother there who couldn't have given a damn what her daughter did in that half-hour class!

Anchovy has it spot on I think.

We had problems trying to do anything 'structured' at the weekend at all which meant the swimming lessons had to stop for a bit.

I've had one of each. DD came out of school like a firework - huge amounts of energy, needed to run about -do lots of physical stuff. DS was completly exhausted and just wanted to sit and suck his thumb (and he's usually a very high energy child) I wonder whether boys use up more energy at school rushing about playing football while girls are more inclined to sit still and do colouring, thread beads and assassinating each other's characters......ooops is that just mine?
One bit of advice for new reception parents. If you do have a tired one, then consider taking the occasional Friday off. I did this, and it really helped DS. Schools shouldn't mind - and if they do, then yah boo sucks to them!

We have a 2 week half term in the autumn term which really helped last year.

I think as other have said its not the sleepy tired but mentally and emotionally tired. In fact it was hard to get her to wind down and go to bed that bit earlier...she became a bit hyper at bedtime.

It isn't really until towards the end of each term I really noticed any real tiredness. Each school holiday was totally needed.

curlew I think that maybe the structure, expectations etc is more of a mental strain on a lot of boys than girls.

DS2 spent a lot of time sucking his thumb and talking complete nonsense. DS1 spent a lot of time screaming at me.

It does get better, but DS1 (just 8 and gone into Y4) still needs an immediate snack when he gets out of school otherwise he's foul.