A quiet time question

[athena1277]

Ds is finally not needing to nap every day. We are also starting our new school year today with a slightly different schedule than in the past since we don't need to schedule in naptime. I am instead including an hour of quiet time in the afternoon. Dd is fine with it, as I have made her have quiet time much of the summer while ds napped. Now I have to get 5yo ds used to it. How long does it usually take for a younger child to get used to the idea of an hour alone in their room? He made it 40 minutes today before coming to ask me if he could come out. I hope to expand quiet time to 1.5 hours eventually, but for now I will be happy with an hour. :)

[fairfarmhand]

give him a timer so that he knows when it beeps he is done.

[Princess Peach]

Put a clock in his room and tell him he can come out at whatever o'clock.

[Guest]

We transitioned directly from nap to rest time, so none of my kids had a big issue with it. Because my dd does some days ask if she can come out early, we ended up getting a digital clock for both rooms. I tell her what time she can come out and that helps. (I mean, really, time drags forever when we don't know what time it is and we are waiting for something, doesn't it?) Otherwise, I would just keep on with it, he'll get it.

[athena1277]

He actually has a clock in his room, but it's a fancy clock that used to be dh's. I cannot figure out how to set the time! Guess I need to make myself a big note to ask dh how to do it. I thought about using a timer, but I hope that some days he will fall asleep and I wouldn't want the timer to wake him up.

[Momof3littles]

Can he listen to a book on CD? If it is long enough, tell him he can't come out until it is over, or plays 2x or something like that. A timer would work too.

 

We used books on CD to transition the kids to quiet time.

[Guest]

He actually has a clock in his room, but it's a fancy clock that used to be dh's. I cannot figure out how to set the time! Guess I need to make myself a big note to ask dh how to do it. I thought about using a timer, but I hope that some days he will fall asleep and I wouldn't want the timer to wake him up.

 

Yes! Because occasionally this does happen! That's why I didn't want an alarm/timer.

[Chelli]

I have a digital clock in the girls' room. I put a piece of paper over the minutes when they go in their room for quiet time. They can't come out until the hour number matches what's on the paper. So when the hour says 4 like it says on the paper over the minutes, then they can get up.

 

You can use it for early riser children as well to keep them in their room until you are ready for them to come out, but we all sleep late around here!

[mom2hunangirls]

We've gone straight from nap time to quiet time too, but to help the 5 yr old (I agree sitting in your room never knowing when it would be over is miserable!) I've got 2 clocks (analog and digital to teach both :) ) and some days she has an iPod touch sometimes. On days I want her to sleep I tell her I'll open the door when she can come out and I open it while she's sleeping. She likes being able to come out when she wakes up.

I'm a pretty solid 2 hour girl. :) although today I got a bonus hour after they when nuts in the grocery store. Grrrrr

[aggieamy]

Can he listen to a book on CD? If it is long enough, tell him he can't come out until it is over, or plays 2x or something like that. A timer would work too.

 

We used books on CD to transition the kids to quiet time.

 

We have a similar system here. Our audiobooks are on an iPod and the iPod player in the room can be set to go off after a certain time. Once the book stops you can come out, if DD is asleep then she doesn't even notice that the book is off but once she wakes up she knows that quiet time is over.