If your child LOVES reading...

[nancypants]

and I mean L-O-V-E-S reading (think :drool5::001_tt1::001_wub: kinda love) how late do you let them stay up and read? My 8 yos would honestly stay up until 11:00 reading if I let him. I love how much he loves to read. I hate telling him to stop reading. But, well... it's almost 10 and I just discovered that he had gone ahead and turned his reading light back on! He's unstoppable. What's your policy?

[Crissy]

I encourage my boys to begin reading earlier in the evening because bedtime is at 9:30.

They get crabby if they don't get enough sleep, and a few more pages tonight isn't worth the grief tomorrow.

Both of my boys read for 3-4 hours a day, so I don't feel an ounce of guilt when I tell them to mark their pages and turn out the lights.:D

[Jen500]

I have that same 'problem'. Usually lights are out between 9-10pm, depending on how tired they seem. But it's hard to tell him to put a bookmark in when he has 1 chapter left of a really good book...I know what it's like to not want to put a good book down. Sometimes I let one ds stay up a bit later because he has a hard time falling asleep.

[Rose in BC]

Fortunately, my dd 12 who loves to read can also stay up late and wake up, on her own, usually by 6:30 (I'd be okay with 7). Every so often I notice a little crabbiness and then that night I might say to her lights off by 9:30.

 

My ds almost 12, cannot do this. He has to be asleep by 9 - 9:30 and I'm still dragging him out at 7:30ish.

 

Ds 10 needs a good sleep.

[newbie]

I am a sucker when it comes to reading. I have been a book a holic and both dd's are. So I may let them stay up til 11 if they have been good. Kind of like a treat.

 

The only thing is their treats are costing us an arm and leg. The little one is reading a book which are 300 pg in 2 days. Time to start hitting the library weekly.

 

Jet

[Mrs Mungo]

I think only my youngest could stay up late and wake up early without being crabalicious the next morning. My eldest's lights out time is 9:30 on weekdays and 10 on weekends. My middle daughter's lights out time is 8:30 on weekdays and 9 on weekends.

[Sue G in PA]

My dd11 would stay up all night reading if we let her. Summer bedtime is 9pm and we let her stay up until 10pm to read. It's hard b/c she shares a room w/ dd2 and dd2 is a night owl and will NOT sleep if dd11 is up. But, dd11 takes the first 15 min. to read to her sister. Then, she'll read her books while dd2 "reads" her books. It's really cute to see them lying in bed together on dd11's bed "reading" together!

[Stacia]

I usually stop the reading anytime between 10 & 11, depending on how busy our day was & how tired the child is. Of course, they almost always beg to keep reading, lol.

 

Often, I'll give a little warning about lights out. I'll check what they're reading & then tell them something along the lines of:

you can finish that chapter you're on

or

you can read 3 more pages (and give specific page #, so there are no excuses of 'losing count'), along w/ pointing to a specific paragraph to stop at

or

you can finish the book (often for shorter or almost-finished books)

 

The warning seems to help. And, I hate stopping in the middle of a paragraph (or page) myself, so I try to be mindful of that by allowing them to read to the end of a chapter, for instance (a logical stopping point, imo).

 

Maybe it's a moot point, though... if any of these kids have flashlights & continue reading under the covers long after 11....... ;) LOL.

[5wolfcubs]

Both of my boys read for 3-4 hours a day, so I don't feel an ounce of guilt when I tell them to mark their pages and turn out the lights.:D

 

:iagree: Change the word boys to girls and I could have posted this!

On the weekends/summer, I let my girls stay up until 11 or so, whenever I go to bed. My 8yo however gets up at 6am no matter what time he went to bed so he has got to go to sleep between 8-9...

[nmoira]

When my oldest was not quite 5, I'd become quite taken with the idea letting her read herself to sleep at night (there was a lot off talk on Mother Dot Com at the time of letting a child's body learn to regulate itself... uh huh). Not being a complete fool (at least in this instance) I presented the idea to to her as a trial run and told her we'd still have to get up at the same time because of outside commitments. After 2 weeks of her staying up until 3AM, we were all emotional wrecks. I would go into her room in the morning to be greeted by the site of a seeming corpse next to a two foot tall stack of books. Back to an 8:30 bedtime. Her lights out is now 9:30, and she gets up at 8. If she gets less than 10 hours sleep more than one night in a row, she's a monster.

[5kidsforME]

Well this is OT but I have always LOVED to readeven at a young age like your ds. When I would get in trouble I was NOT ALLOWED to read. hehehehe That was the ONLY thing that bothered me so my parents used to take it away. I used to sneak books down my pants and smuggle them to the bathroom, lock the door and read while I was "going to the bathroom". I would hide them in the hamper with the dirty clothes etc.