Year 2 so so tired

[Nosetickle]

My year 2 DD is really struggling at the moment to go into school. She generally enjoys school when she’s there and she’s going to bed at a reasonable time and sleeping well. She’s just so tired and tearful in the mornings (only on school mornings) and complains that her tummy hurts, I think in the hope that we’ll keep her off school although she seems fine.

After another emotional drop off this morning it hit me that this is actually the first ever full year she’s done at school due to the lockdowns and it’s been a really full on one with SATS and the level of work that has been expected of her has been huge.

Has anyone else found this with their year 2s? Any advice? I just really wanted to keep her off school today and just cuddle her all day but I know I can’t make a habit of that and she has a maths test today. It just seems a lot for a seven year old.

What time does she actually go to bed and fall asleep? What time does she have to be up in the morning?

No advice but I feel you! If your daughter seems happy about school generally it sounds as though she’s a bit overwhelmed. I think you’re doing the right thing by being supportive but not taking her out. Have you talked to the teachers?

Anecdotally, apparently I did the same nearly every morning at a similar age. I was surprised when I was told by my mum many years later - as far as I was concerned I adored school in that year! I think you might have hit the nail on the head with general exhaustion (mentally especially!) and I didn’t have Covid disruption either.

Hang in there, not long left until summer!

Thanks @RachelSq I think she will look back on this time so finally one day but it’s just hard at the moment. Counting down the days to the summer holidays and a break from this. I just called the school to ask how she was as she was particularly upset this morning and I said if they feel she needs to come home to let me know. They’re going to keep an eye on her.

@Dahlly she goes to bed at 7.30, it takes her a while to drop off though, sometimes an hour, not sure what to do about that and she’s an early riser, my alarm is set for 6:30 but she often wakes me up before that. She has never needed (or wanted) a lot of sleep.

It’s tough for them, I think it’s a mixture of their age and realising some level of independence, this is their first full year at school, school will be talking about year 3 and changes always come with some anxiety and it being nearly the end of the year they’re tired. Mines struggling too

A way to stop it quite quickly is this.

Explain to her that the reason that she is upset in the mornings etc is that she isn’t getting enough sleep. I understand you say she doesn’t need much etc but use this to explain her behaviour to her.

Say it’s a clear sign that she isn’t having enough sleep and is to go to bed an hour earlier. At 6.30pm with lights out.

Now she won’t like this and will quickly figure out that if she wants to stay up, she will have to make mornings less challenging.
Its a win/win because if she actually is lacking sleep, then she will be able to catch up.

Bloody hell. I wish mine would go to sleep at 7:30. She's asleep by 9 at the earliest. Up at 7. Seems fine though. It's just me that wants her to get an earlier night so I can have some sort of time to myself. Anyway, no my Y2 is not tired. I agree you just need to get her to bed earlier if possible.

7yo DS is also currently in his first full school year after two Covid- disrupted years.

He was in absolute floods last night because it was Sports Day and another boy threw a stone at him and messed up one of his races (he’s not particularly athletic anyway). I think he is tired, and ready for a break/ change of scene.

We are finishing up end of June though so not so long to wait.

It's the end of term on the first full year in school, I remember quite a few random crying children at the end of term when I used to do pick up.

Mine are in y6 and ratty as anything.

Hello
have you asked if there is anything else that’s upset her? Tummy aches etc can be anxiety. Please make sure she has plenty of time protected time to express any feelings issues eg before bedtime/whatever works for you. There is an usborne book on feelings that I found quite useful around age 5+

@Dahlly as an adult I’m having to undo the effects of this sort of bedtime approach - i have a lot of trouble getting to sleep and getting enough sleep. The advice I’ve had recently is to only get into bed when you are tired so you associate bed with sleeping and not to lie in bed awake for more than 15 minutes - even if this means going to be later than usually.
I lay awake in bed every night as a child for hours as my parents enforced an early bed time so I think my bed-sleep associations are fucked.

So you would advice that children should only go to bed when tired? Ok, I’m sure that will work out great.

This isnt permanent move, it’s designed for the child to understand that they can have the later bedtime when there is greater self regulation in mornings

I appreciate your advice @Dahlly but it isn’t something I want to do. 6:30 is a very early bedtime and I wouldn’t want to turn the lights out and leave her in her room alone, upset and not remotely tired. Sounds miserable for everyone.

I had a chat with her and she says she gets upset because she hates the mornings at school and finds it boring (they do literacy and numeracy in the morning). She says she loves the afternoons which are things like geography, history, art, PE and she got very animated telling me about scratch junior which I looked up and it’s coding. I tried to explain that literary and numeracy are very important and even if she does find them boring they will help her with everything in life. She has been better since. I wish there was some way to make these subjects more interesting.

She might have been a bit under the weather at the beginning of the week too because later in the week her younger sister came down with a tummy bug that’s doing the rounds. So perhaps she genuinely did have an upset stomach but not bad enough to be properly ill.

Thanks for all the replies.

My year 2 has been complaining of morning tummy aches/dizzyness, as soon as she sees her uniform or turns the corner and sees school. It isn't tiredness in her case but boredom we think. DH had a chat with her and this is what she said. I'm hoping the move to year 3 means more interesting/challenging work to come. She decided after school the other night to make a poster on a topic they had started at school she was actually interested in, she bounded into school the next day full of beans.