Bedtime.
It is a time of day that draws the line in the sand between parents and children. One is desperate for the day to end and quiet to finally reign. The other side is ready for a few more hours of rough and tumble play.
We are getting ready to begin a new school year and with the end of summer comes the return of stricter more structured bedtime routine here in our home.
Our bedtime routine starts at 8:00pm with a light snack and some milk for the children after they are dressed for bed. When they finish their snack they brush their teeth and go potty. Then they head to the couch.
During this time we talk about our day, deal with any issues that might have come up between the children and I during the day with Daddy, and spend some time with each other. Then when the last child is seated and ready Daddy transitions into our family worship time. This time can look different depending on the night. Some nights it is a round of Bible Challenge DVD game, some its Daddy reading from the Scriptures to us, and even others it could be a Bible Drill or question and answer time. We try to keep it fun but also respectful and reverent. During this time we work with the little ones on sitting quietly and I normally nurse the baby sleep.
Then around 9:00pm we send some of the children (we have some that struggle with night time wetting) potty one more time, diaper those that need it and everyone heads to bed. We are very firm with the children about staying in bed once the lights are out. And most of the time, they do well. Every once in awhile, one will go through a spell of calling/getting up and then we will have a tussle but it usually doesn’t last more than a couple nights and then we are back to peaceful evenings.
I am wondering what bedtime looks like in your house? Set bedtime? Certain number books? Snack or no Snack? Would you share with me how you handle bedtime.
Our betime routine begins at umm, well 7ish. The kiddos get in their jammies, brish their teeth (we have no bedtime snack here) and sit on the couch or in their beds depending on what our bible time is goign to look like that particular night. Sometimes Daddy reads to the little ones then sends them off to bed & then he reads to the big ones but most of the time we are all together. Cory reads a chapter or so answer questions and we pray together.
We are currently finishing up the book of Matthew.
It super fun when we get to the parables because Daddy gets out the toys & acts them out for us :) For our family that is pretty exciting :)
Thanks for sharing yoru bedtime routine :)
I love your bed time routine and Amy I love that your husband acts out! If I were to post my routine id have a car of moms over here jumping in to smack us around! Really, but I guess ill post it ;) we start at 7:30 with everyone on the sofa and me in the recliner with Jolene.we read, pray and then they all go different ways.Olders go downstairs the little stay with me so I can rock Jolene to sleep, I put her in the crib and then its Chases turn to rock to sleep, put him to bed and then Ethan follows me until I go to bed.I told you you wouldnt like it!! Once daddy comes home the routine changes.Once baby is here I see a need to change this up a bit.
Our bedtime routine starts at 8pm. Ian brushes his teeth and reads his Bible to himself. (He uses the Day by Day Kid’s Bible by Karyn Henley.) If we have Jade that evening, sometimes he reads to her, or sometimes I read her a Bible story. Then he plays in his room until 9, at which time he goes to bed. If he has been particularly good and quiet, I will sometimes let him sit up in bed and read for a while (but only if we don’t have Jade that evening). Snacks have never occurred to me. Do they help the kids sleep better? When Ian was a baby, I would put cereal in his bottle just before bedtime, and that seemed to help, but I forgot about that a long time ago. What kinds of snacks do you use?