Parents of 7 yr olds - what routine do you have at bed time?

[ssd]

I'm still doing the same thing that I've done for 7 years eg. we read ds1 a story then put him into bed and turn out his light. But 9/10 nights he finds it hard to go to sleep. Should I be letting him put himself to bed, or at least do the reading himself??

Any advise welcome!

ds reads to himself for a while or, as tonight, he is listening to a story tape. He has a wall light by his bed and switches it off as and when, probably when his tape finishes tonight.

Well, he's 8 but basically - we do what we've always done: he has a bath with his brother, I read to him, and I leave, but for the last year or so he's taken responsibility for settling himself - he reads by himself for a while usually. He's pretty good - sometimes I will go up and point out that it's half nine and it's time to stop but usually he just reads for another half an hour or so. Might be time to give that a try?

My DD will be 7 in Feb. We are changing our routine gradually, or rather her life is changing it. With school work interupting our precious cuddle up time and stories I tend to get her in the bath by 6.30, sit in bed with her and help with spellings and she reads her school book then she chooses another one for me to read or sometimes she just wants the light out to listen to a story CD. Asleep by 7.30-8pm usually.

I think they find it hard to switch their busy brains off sometimes so letting them wind down with a bit of reading on their own or a story tape/CD is a great idea.

I wouldn't necessarily change what you are doing ssd, but maybe do you need to review the time he goes to bed? Does he have a bath or a warm drink before bedtime?

My dd1 is 8 - we don't read to her anymore but let her go to bed and read for half an hour. She sometimes finds it difficult to settle her mind, and often asks us to tell her something to think about (a field of waving golden corn, a sea of swimming dolphins), to visualise and help her to switch off.

Dd2 is 6 (nearly 7) and she generally just goes to bed (doesn't often get a story !). However I am thinking of suggesting to dh that we get her reading for a bit in bed before she settles down as she sometimes finds it difficult to get to sleep.

I think I've just contradicted myself!!! They both put themselves to bed too, although we sometimes go through to give them a kiss.

HTH - looks a bit muddled to me!!!

My 7 year old daughter stays for stories with her younger brothers if she wants to between 7.30 - 8ish, (she usually wants to) then goes to bed and reads by herself for twenty minutes or so and puts out the light herself.

The story tapes might work, what would anyone suggest for a football mad boy age 7 and 1/2?
He also loves dinosaurs/mammals etc in fact anything factual.

Thanks.

The books by Lemony Snicket - a Series of Unfortunate Events - are very good as audiotapes.

We also have the same routine for dd1 as we always have (bath at 7pm, into bed by twenty past, read to her until half past) except that after dh or has read to her, she then reads herself until she is tired (usually by 8-8.30pm), turns off her light and goes to sleep! She is quite sensible though and will stop reading when she is tired.

DS2 is 6.5.
He reads to me, I read to him or we play a game or something. Then he has an hour's lights on time to read in bed, then goes to sleep.

DS1 is 8. He does some reading with dh and watches videos or something, then has an hour or so to play upstairs on his own, then an hour lights on reading in bed time.

Gosh - does that sound awful? He likes some space on his own, and I like having child-free evenings; so I banish him upstairs at 7 pm.

DS1 and 2 have the same (very loose!) routine.

7.30 - I tell them to go and have a wash/brush teeth

7.45 - I start yelling

8.00 - We have a kiss and a cuddle and they take themselves off to bed. They can read until 8.30 when their lights go out.

DS1 who is 7, is usually asleep a couple of minutes after that. Ds2, 5, can sometimes be awake until 9 playing imaginary games and chatting to himself.

ssd - I think I'd let him read a bit himself. I know dd (and me and dh) all find it hard to drop off without reading even a little, even if we're really tired. Its also quite hard to know how tired they are, and giving them a bit of responsibility for getting to sleep is good for them (as long as they're sensible about it). Dd only occasionally has to be reminded to get the light off and go to sleep.

The trouble is he can read but at 7 there are words he gets stuck at. Also the books he loves are difficult for him to read eg. all of the BBC books on dinosaurs/mammals/cavemen. Or footie books. We've bought him lots of Roald Dahl, Flat Stanley, etc. but he finds it hard to read them alone. Maybe I'll try the story tapes. TBH I don't trust him to be sensible and to go to sleep when he's tired, he's a master of pissing about and trying to stay up as late as he can get away with. And then he's a pain the next day.

My dd who is soon to be 8 likes to read a story to dd2 before they go to sleep. If we have a book that all of us are reading then I read it and ds comes in too. They loved Folk of the faraway tree (enid blyton) and going to sleep thinking of what land they would like to visit and what will happen next.

Most of the kids so far on this thread seem to go to bed v early compared to ours. She has time for a play/watch tv after her tea, then bath about 8, has a chapter of a book read to her, then she reads/sings/chats to herself till about 9.30, when I have to remind her it's sleeptime. She goes to sleep about 10. She's up at 7, but doesn't seem to need more sleep than that. How do people manage to get kids up to bed 7ish, isn't that straight after tea?

My DS (7 and a half) has a bath at 7.00pm, then has a glass of milk and a cookie whilst she watches TV for half an hour. She goes to bed at 8.00pm and like others have said, has recently wanted to look at books by herself, which she now does. She's allowed to do this for 15 minutes, then I turn her lights down, sing her bedtime song, kiss, cuddle and sleep. She usually goes off within minutes.

I read this thread hoping to find some solutions to my own 7yr old problems. Triplets!I have tried all the suggestions on here, the bath, warm drinks, stories, tapes, cuddles etc etc etc. Sadly nothing works. They will usually all go up at 8pm, all looking very wide eyed. They get ready for bed and if they are good I read to them for at least 30mins. Rebecca then goes off to her room, the two boys share, no choice. Then for at least the next hour and a half I am either shouting upstairs to the boys to be quiet or have to go up to them. They are not being naughty naughty, but talk talk talk and rattling toys on the bars of their beds, it drives me nuts. I have tried putting one in my bed but they just get out and go back. Rebecca will stay in her room, and usually sings to herself until about 9pm, but the boys are not asleep generally until 10pm, even after a long day out, seems to make no difference, so help!

My dds are 4 and 7. On school nights I aim for 7.30-8.00.
4 year old falls asleep right away 7 year old reads, listens to tapes, watches a vid, whatever she wants and has a lamp next to her bed that she switches on/off as she likes.
She finds it hard to fall asleep but me shouting at her doesnt help so I just leave her to it. Even if I put her to bed at 10 she would still take at least 30 mins to settle.
She getsup between 7 and 7.30 after falling asleep between 8.45- 9.30.

Oh and no routine..just youve got 5 mins till bed so finish what your doing...right 2 mins...bed!

Mine all tell me they are not tired, so why do I have to struggle to wake them up at 7.30am?

They are nighowls triplets (hello !) like my dd.. and try as you might you cannot force people like this to go to sleep !!!

I have no answer, only that at the moment they need to learn that they must stay in their room and not bother anyone else.
Let them read, listen to tapes etc, until they can sleep.

Yes, it is a pain trying to wake them in the morning - one day they may realise they need to have more sleep... but (and I am a bit like dd) I am sure they would rather have that sleep in the morning than at night.

Unfortunately they won't get to 'enjoy' their own sleep patterns until they are older, until then well we just have to try our best to ensure they get enough sleep (not an easy task)

my 6 yr old dd has a story read by us, then goes to bed at 6:45 and reads on her own for 30 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on how exciting her book is. She's got a reading light by her bed and is realible about switching it off before falling asleep.

Thanks Unicorn,
Guess you are right, they do stay in their rooms so I guess thats something, I am sometimes asleep before them!