Need a new evening 'routine' for my 7 year old DS - ideas please....

[Gameboy]

DS is 7 (Y2) and has started needing less sleep I think. We've always started bedtime for both he and DS2 (4.5) at about 7 pm with lights out by 8 pm latest, which has given DH & I a bit of time to ourselves.

However DS1 has now started waking earlier. This morning he got up at 5.30 am! He's not meant to leave his room before 6.30, but made a mistake... however I know that he is awake often at this time, so we really need to adjust his bedtime I think.

Problem is that I don't just want him to default to an extra hour of TV (which is more or less what he & DS2 do between 5 - 7 pm, as well as have tea).
But nor do DH & I really want to have to 'entertain' him at this time either, as we're usually busy cooking, putting DS2 to bed etc.

What do your 7 year old boys do at this time? Do we try to get him to develop a new hobby? Send him to Beavers? Or what?
Problem is, he's really not very good at just 'chilling' on his own. his existing 'hobbies' are complex lego models, computer games and reading I guess.

Also, how do we stop DS2 from throwing a wobbly when he has to go to bed earlier?

Would an activity after school help?

Swimming lessons?

Could you find a friend who also has a similar problem and arrange alternative pickups?

Swimming would wear him out as well.

Thanks Collision - thing is, we already feel he has a busy week:

• Monday : Judo
• Tuesday: Regular friend over/ over at friend's to play
• Thurs: Drama club
• Fri: School trampolining
• Sat: swimming

And he never seems that tired!

And we can't really do more stuff outside of home, as DS2 is too knackered.

At the moment he's waking everyone up early, however hard he tries to be quiet in the morning I also don't really believe he 'makes a mistake' with the time at 5.30 am, I think he's just awake and bored - it's happened a little bit too often!

My dd is also 7 and in year 2. She has learnt to accept that her brother goes to bed later than her as he is older. She sometimes grumbles, but can see the logic. He has always gone to bed a bit later as I read stories to her first, then him. We have tried to emphasis the opposite eg she gets more help at bathtime because she is younger!
I aim to have her in bed by 8 but if she does not feel particularly tired she is allowed to read or colour quietly in her bed or room. (This won't work if your share a room though!) She usually reads for 10-15 mins, but sometimes it is a slong as an hour and she tells stories to her teddy etc. As you say, we need time for ourselves - but this way, if she is not tired she is still quiet and 'settling'.

perhaps it is just the excitement of going back to school .. may be change soon.

Yes - I think whatever it is, it should be 'quiet time' in his room. He doesn't share with his brother, so that's OK.

Just interested now, really, what other things do 7 year old boys do?

• comics?
• building things?
• perhaps some sort of collections - stickers? But he's not really into football...

i agre with quiet time. nice book? encyclopaedia? lots of pictures?

My dd1 aged 7 goes to bed at 8, however she does find it hard to get to sleep, so she is allowed to read in bed. By which I mean proper reading, not sitting up flicking through books. Can he read independantly yet?

just going through this with my ds1 who is nearly 7. out of despair we took his lamp and lightbulb out of his room on friday and he is now sleeping better, he has a bath and then story with his 2 younger brothers and for now its working. i read recently that children can almost become hyperactive/manic with energy when they don't get enough sleep and it sort of made sense as he was going to bed later and later and just wasn't winding down. (he was drawing, writing stories and making lego figures)
it's so hard fighting your own corner, especially when you have given them 12 hours plus of your time you just want an hour to catch up ( there are times me and my dh are so knackered we talk in clipped shorthand with each other - you just can't get the words out!) I've also cut back on after school stuff and friends coming over as he seems to get over excited and can't switch off afterwards.
not sure what will happen when the evenings get lighter though......

GlassofWine - yes, he reads independently and voraciously! That's another issue - he gets through so many books we can't go to the library often enough (nice 'problem' I know, but it still demands our time... )

Shrub - I don't think we have quite the same problem, as he always goes to bed fine, and falls asleep quickly, but just doesn't sleep long enough, so we were hoping to shift his bedtime back by an hour or so...

DH is a late bird, and tends to negatively influence me that way too (although left on my own I'll snuggle up with a good book and my cocoa at 10.00 !!)
So last night we went to bed at 11.45pm, and then DS1 work me (but not DH!) at 5.30 am. And then DH wonders why I'm in a bad mood....

Come to think of it, DS1 has always been like this... when he was about 4 he used to get up about 4.30 am, come into our room and say 'Mummy, is it time to get up yet?'

Aaargh, maybe he is a child genius. Wonder if I could get him doing something useful like learning to make money on the stockmarket or something before we're even awake?

personally I would keep bedtimes the same, make sure he has a clock in his room and tell him he is not to get up until so and so time. I did this dd1 (6) and she eventually just stopped waking early

she had afew days of waking and seeing the time and knowing she wasn't allowed up (she would tell me what the clock said when she had woken up and now she says that she wakes up when I wake her and not before

Trinity - that's what we used to do, and it has now stopped working, hence the rethink. He was never allowed to get up before 6.30 am to go downstairs. Over the last few months he has been waking earlier. I know because he gets up to go to the loo, and however quiet he tries to be (OK, not very, he's a 7 year old boy...) he wakes me up, and often DS2, who can't afford to be woken up.

oh right ok sorry
I would say thought that it may not be that he doesn't need less sleep and you may just have to tell him he needs to go back to sleep

if you adjust his bedtime and he still getsd up early then he will be tired also

he is old enough to be told and learn that he looks at his clock and then makes no noise =, turns over and goes back to sleep if it's not the right time

What if you changed the time on his clock? Would he wake at what he thought was 4.30 (really 5.30)and go back to sleep for a few hours?