“After story time, Josiah had to take his nap, and I set the timer for half an hour and played on the computer. My big brother let me play his World War II game. It’s really fun.” “Jonathan’s Journal”




Nap tips for preschoolers and toddlers continued from yesterday….


6. Surround the naptime with routine. I always had a noontime schedule that went something like this with my littles: lunch, lunch clean up (older kids did this while I nursed baby or did toddler’s short story time—see earlier posts about story time), storytime for one to two hours, then naps for two hours. My toddlers always took three hour naps and played in crib for another hour or so. My preschoolers always read with me for an hour or two then slept for two hours. Then they asked if they could get up. If, for some reason they awoke early and the other kids and I were in the middle of a project or needed for the little one to rest a little while longer, the little one lay in bed and looked at books or did a quiet activity. This routine went on for years and years, literally! Everybody knew what to expect.


7. Use talking books or radio dramas (like Your Story Hour or Adventures in Odyssey) if your kids need something to listen to while they drift off to sleep. (For toddlers, I often used Christian lullabyes, Steve Green’s Hide ‘Em in Your Hearts, or Scripture tapes.) As my preschoolers got older and could operate the tape player by themselves, they could put tapes in if they woke up too early from naps or in the mornings.

8. You determine when a child outgrows his nap. For me, when the child could not fall asleep at night at his normal bedtime or would lie in bed all afternoon without falling asleep, I knew naptime was coming to a close for that preschooler. This usually happened around age six or so in our home. However, usually until age seven or eight, at least, everybody had a quiet time after story time. This meant that for an hour everybody would lie down and look at books, listen to tapes, etc. When I had five children nine and under (and all of them were at home with me all the time), I needed to know that out of the thirteen hours or so everyday that Ray was at work, I had an hour in which nobody needed anything. I always looked forward to that hour and would eat my lunch, plan my lessons, read parenting/homeschooling books, etc.

It sounds trite and even a little regimented in writing, but it simply wasn’t so. It was almost glorious, actually. Having content, cooperative, sweet preschoolers was the added benefit of keeping my little ones on good schedules, including necessary naps.

You can do this! And you will be so glad you did when you (and everybody around you) enjoy having your little ones around.