Catch our coat tails!
Shark, Squirrel and Tiger have followed their own sleep patterns for years.
The kids went to sleep about midnight last night.
No yelling, no screaming, no pleading, no power games.
We didn't need to get up early for anything this morning, so late nights are OK by me. The kids take it in turns for the bathroom and most nights they no longer need me to negotiate order of access to the bath, sink, loo. They sort it out themselves. When they're done with that, they climb into bed with books, and read until they decide to switch off their bedside lights.
It's as simple as that. I force nothing, the kids are not resisting anything, they sleep and wake as they need.
When they came down about 11am this morning, they set about reading their weekly newspaper.*
Over brunch, we talked about Children in Need, koalas and baby sharks.
Simple.
But tell me, why is it that when home educated kids stay up late, it's neglect, but when a school does it, it's an educational revelation?
* And just to clarify, no money or advantage is conferred on the gritty household for that link.
4 comments:
Don't you just love when schools act as if they've made a great discovery--when it's usually just common sense? Go to bed when tired--wake when you're rested. Fairly simple!
How is the kids newspaper? Worthwhile? Also--have you tried Aquila magazine?
At present, my 8 and 6 year old are fast asleep but my 5 year old is laying on his bed, reading steadily through a pile of books. (OK, looking at pictures)
I have a rule about being in their rooms at about 8pm, because by then I am a little bit fed up of looking at them, but the actual going to sleep is up to them.
@ Elizabeth - I like the look of Aquila too. We normally get the kids news from the library. No one else reads it apparently.
@Kelly--I was babysitting my sisters oldest 5 kids when she was in hospitl having baby #6--I sent them all to bed about 11pm--I was exhausted.My eldest niece comes down a bit later to complain she couldn't go to sleep. I told her I never said she had to go to sleep--just to bed! :)
you are right, elizabeth. i try not to say everything they do, we do one better, but it's hard, no?!
they like First news; it's a bit photo heavy and a bit light on the news sometimes, but hopefully the kids get into the news habit and won't gravitate to the Daily Sport when we release them into the wild.
and we will try aqila.
i tried that rule, kelly, and it failed miserably. mostly because we are quite late eaters with 7pm supper and we never really manage to bring that back to a cooked meal at afternoon tea time. it is just wrong wrong wrong!
perhaps i did that at some point elizabeth, like JUSTGETINBED! but they seem happy enough to loll about there, reading. that's good enough for me, the knuckles i chewed over that process.
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