Struggling with 7 year old bedtime

[Ricepops]

I'm struggling with my 7 year old's bedtime. For about a year now, he's been allowed to read by himself before lights off, but this "reading by himself" bit seems to have drifted and drifted, and now he is usually up out of bed, writing lists about Pokemon, drawing Pokemon or flicking through a Pokemon encyclopedia. Sometimes he come downstairs to get himself paper or pencils.

Altogether the bedtime routine is:
-7.30pm upstairs, toilet, bath, pjs, teeth
-He reads to me or DH
-Me or DH reads to him
-He "reads by himself"
-Listens to Audible for 15 min
-9pm lights off

I don't have any issues with other parts of the routine, aside from the fact that it starts a bit early. This is because DD who is 4, needs a lot more sleep and DS naturally just starts getting ready around the same time.

However I would like him to read chapter books, or some other types of books to broaden his horizons a bit and also wind down at bedtime. He is perfectly capable of this - he is very bright and a fluent reader.

Tonight we pushed bedtime back a little bit so that we had finished reading with him at 8.30pm and then told him he could only read after that - no writing. However I stopped short of taking away his Pokemon magazines and encyclopedias, so that is what he read.

Would be interested to know if anyone else has bedtime issues and how you've addressed it.

I think that's really late for a 7 year old!

I agree with pp.
My 6 and 8 year old go up at 7:30pm. Dc6 is lights out after I've read to him. Dd8 reads until 8:30pm. No getting out of bed etc,

I bath both DS at the same time to save time and on water / heating. DS 3 in bed for 6.45/7.30pm.
DS (almost) 6 in bed for 8pm and my preference would be 7.30pm but can't get it together in timr. We start winding down at around 7.30pm.

Meant to say DS 3 in bed for 6.30 - 7pm!

I think that's late. On non activity nights my 10 year olds go up at 8 and lights off by 830. They do get up stupidly early though.

I'd consider all the pokemon stuff as quiet time in the lead up to bedtime, not part of bedtime.

I'd say:

• Dinner
• playtime
• 7.30pm

Read to you quiet time with pokemon books. 8.00pm

• Bath with an audiobook
• teeth, toilet, PJs, into bed

8.20pm

• 10 minute reading (him to you, or you to him)

8.30pm

• lights out, sleep.

That's late, my 7 year old has lights out a 8 and sleeps 11 hours.

I think if he wants to read and do the pokemon stuff he needs to be in bed by a certain time and lights out earlier. I wouldn't stress about the pokemon though, as long as he reads some nights.

I knew everyone would latch onto the bedtime! He really doesn't need that much sleep and I"m not asking for advice on that part. He has always needed a lot less sleep than his peers, even as a baby. It's not like he goes to bed at 9pm and is out like a light either. And he is still up at 6.30pm.

Thanks Eurpaxia. That's a good idea actually to alter the order of things so its a bit clearer.

We do fiction only at bedtime - usually brief grumbling because he wants science books/encyclopaedias but he gets over it and then will read chapter books, story collections, poetry, etc. Bedtime is for stories, downstairs in the day he can and will read whatever he likes.