Getting toddlers to sleep in summer

[LiefievdM]

Hi, anyone have any tips on getting toddlers and preschoolers to stay in their beds at bedtime in summer. Driving me up the wall! I am waiting for blackout curtain lining to be delivered, but not sure if that will help much. The pre-schooler knows it's not nighttime :s
I've tried rewards and threats. Nothing works. 9pm now and they are both still awake. (And the 6 month old shares with the preschooler, who then wakes her up when she crashes around the room out of bed!)

Blackout blackout blackout. We have been known to resort to towels wedged in place by the top of the window. Our neighbours laugh at us, but at least toddler (2.8) goes merrily on his way by 7.30pm. No idea what we'll do when he twigs the sun is actually still up!

How active are they in the day time? Particularly the preschooler? Mines is a shit sleeper, but does crash out 7-8pm as we've always been strict with a bedtime routine and she's genuinely knackered from running around all day.
My 18 month old is still up. We've been more relaxed with her bedtimes and we're bloody paying for it now. No magic tricks here I'm afraid, but I wonder if the solution is to be very firm at bedtimes. Make sure everything is boring. TVs off etc. Sit by the bed until they are asleep and gradually retreat.
Hope someone has better suggestions. Blackouts don't work much for us.

Blackout it's the only way forward, we got a baa baa blind which is portable, I also move bedtime an hour later in summer, mine are 4 and 20 months.

They are actually pretty active kids - And we were at the playground this afternoon for quite a while in the heat. I expected them to be conked out by 6 lol

Until this summer, bedtime was like clockwork. Always in bed by 7, asleep soon after. But we had blackout blinds. And the toddler had a cot, so no escape.

Moved recently and no blinds at the moment sigh!!!! And toddler now had a bed. Counting the minutes til delivery day of blinds!!!

Baa baa blinds. Will have a look, thanks.

Isn't there some magic abracadabra or something or other???

The funny thing is that the screen time calms them down for a bit. When I turn the screen off, they usually run around the house singing and shouting and riling each other up.

Right. Wait patiently for blackout lining. Get extra towels. Be boring.

Ho hum. Who needs down time

I know this may be derailing the thread a bit (and I'm sorry OP) but has anyone else's DC had their previously OK sleeping pattern go absolutely haywire since the heatwave began?

Mine has..... and it's definitely not a light thing!!

Use tin foil on the windows if you want proper black out (or until you blackout linings arrive)

We wet the windows with a wet flannel and out up tin foil when we go on holiday- totally blocks out light.

Wow. Genius. Tin foil.

(Now to sneakily apply this without them noticing, lest they think it's junk modelling time )

Strangely, they are usually not great sleepers. Wake about 4 times a night between them. But since the heat started they have slept through (from about 21:30 that is..... )

Ah was wondering how to fix the tin foil into windows, struggled with a whole roll on holiday a few months back and thought it was twaddle, will try wet flannel first

Op same here with tv, if I turn it off before bed it's like two annoying flies buzzing around the house! The baa baa Ines are quite good as they have suckers and you can change the size to suit the window.

Even if my kids go to bed late they are still up with the sunrise

Be warned, we did the tin foil thing in a previous house. It left permanent marks on the glass. It might be that we left it up too long.