Children’s sleeping patterns and school.

Children’s sleeping patterns and school.

If they are not back already, school kids will be starting their new term in school within the next few days.  They have all probably enjoyed weeks of fun packed days, late nights, lie-ins, and holidays.  But for most households, easing your children into the normal sleeping pattern for school term time, can be a lot more difficult as it sounds.  Therefore, Key Stage Two.com have complied a useful guide that you can incorporate into you and your children’s morning and evening strategy. 

As a parent, it is only normal that you hope to experience a smooth transition for the term time schedule, if your child is not accustomed to a healthy sleeping pattern it can cause serious problems stemming outside the bedroom and into school and home life.  Lack of sleep can cause difficulty in concentration, issues with bad behavior, irritability, underlying health issues, or a child becoming hyperactive or disagreeable.  Sleep is very important to a child’s wellbeing, and although there is no set amount of hours per night a child should be sleeping, the NHS state that between 9.5 and 10.5 hours per night is ideal for a child aged 7-11.  You can visit their website for a more detailed breakdown of hours per night compared with the exact age of your child. 

1. Instill a non-negotiable time for your children to go to bed and get up, and stick to it.  This will ensure complacency and develop a routine that they will become accustomed to.  If your children fail to get up at the set time, you could always impose a penalty whereby their bedtime will then be 15 minutes earlier than usual for the following evening.  Although, if you do warn this, you must follow through with the consequence or threatening it will mean nothing to your children.

 2.  Stagger Wake-Up Times

If you have more than one child, you could consider staggering wakeup times for greater efficiency. Starting with your children who require more assistance or the sleepyheads, this will allow you to get them ready without interruptions prior to the rest of the family getting up, and will also ease the nightmare of everyone wanting to use the bathroom at the same time!

3. The school uniforms

Full uniforms, including clean socks, underwear, shoes and accessories should be laid out or hung up each night before bedtime. You can involve your children in picking out the items.  Getting up in the morning with everything sitting ready can play a real part in easing the morning routine.  Even as an adult I still do this process on weeknights for myself!

4. Breakfast

Breakfast is important—and said to be the most important meal of the day, so your kids need a nutritious start each morning.  Preparing breakfast should be a straight forward process, but it is not always the case.  Have as much ready the night before, for example plates and glasses and encourage your children to do as much for themselves as possible in preparing their own breakfast, exception being kettles, etc.   show your younger children how to correctly pour their own cereals and milk; allowing you one less thing to do in the mornings. 

5. Only Do What's Really Important

A school morning routine should consist of

-Getting your child up at the same sufficient time.

-A quick dip in the bath or wash.

-Dressed for school using pre-prepared uniform.

-Healthy breakfast.

-Kiss and a cuddle and off to school!

Chores and duties not specific to getting your child ready for school can cause unnecessary problems, and create a mad rush to get out the door. Consider creating a checklist of what must be done each week from afterschool activities and P.E kits. It is not advisable to leave Homework until the morning time, but some children do perform better first thing in the morning compared to after school, if this is something your child prefers you can work with it and allow adequate time.

6. Lunches and schoolbags.

Getting your children up, dressed and fed every morning is quite a task in itself. Start the new term with new rules, for example preparing all lunches in the evenings, ready to grab from the fridge before school.  It is also a good idea to put schoolbags, P.E kits and back-backs into the boot of the car before bed also.  Coats should be kept in a central location near the door so you are not running round rooms looking for them in the mornings. The central location could also house shoes, car keys, mobiles and purses.

7. Promote Self Responsibility

Kids can learn to awaken by an alarm clock and get themselves up. Let them decide what is the best time for the alarm to go off and get ready on time. It may mean your daughter doesn't get her hair styled or your son doesn't get toast with his cereal, but it can encourage them to set their alarm 15 minutes earlier the next day. Cause and effect...it's a good lesson to learn!

8. As a parent, be a morning riser, not a morning whiner!

It’s all great reading how to better manage your children’s sleeping patterns and morning schedule, but it is equally important you are well organised also! Make sure you get up ten minutes before the kids to allow uninterrupted time to get yourself sorted; if you are running round in a frantic panic it will be very hard for your children to exercise the tips as mentioned above.

9. And finally, have wind-down time before bed without electronics or games in order for your children to settle.

- Take all electronics out of the bedroom so it is merely a place to sleep.

- Put the kids to bed and wake them up at the exact same time every day, really important!

- Lots of bright light in the morning is a sure fire way to wake up any sleepy heads. Therefore lots of bright light at night is a no-no.

Good luck folks and the best of luck for the new term 2011/2012. 

This information was brought to you by Key Stage Two.com, an online learning environment for children aged 7-11.   Key Stage Two.com successfully manages to combine fun games with education, making sure academic and non-academic children benefit greatly, whilst being compliant with the National Curriculum in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales.  Visit http://www.keystagetwo.com or try the demo at http://www.keystagetwo.com/demo

Back to School Tips

 The final week of the summer holidays 2011 are now upon us and kids and parents are now preparing for the new academic year.  There are so many things to remember so we have put together a checklist to help you, as a parent to prepare for September 2011 and onwards.  

1)      School uniforms and P.E kits make the first topic on our list.  By now you should have every item your child will need for the new term.  There are many items of clothing you will be able to use from last year, but crisp new shirts, socks, vests and pants should make your list of new things to buy.  Supermarkets now sell uniforms, P.E wear and shoes, my favourite is Asda, as it’s very reasonably priced and of good quality.  I actually buy a lot of my clothes from there myself! P.S Remember to name-label all items with a black sharpie.

2)      Back to School accessories are next on the list, new pens, pencils, rulers, notepads, school bags, and pencil cases make up some of the accessories.  Don’t forget wrapping paper for those new books you will be asked to wrap on the evening of their first day back to school!

3)      Sleeping pattern awareness.  Now is the time to start shifting your child back into the term time sleeping pattern.  Your child may be used to weeks of staying up that bit later in the evenings and longer mornings in bed, but it is really important to get them back into the term time sleep pattern in the week prior to starting back to school. Get them to bed at the usual time for a school night and up at the normal time to ensure a smooth transition for day one of the new term.  If you fail to ease them into the regular pattern they will be extremely tired in their first week; which will not be a lot of fun for them during school hours.

4)      Double check you have the correct finish time.  As different year groups have varying finishing times, make sure you have the right timings specific to their year.

5)      Check out what after school clubs and activities your school runs.  September is a good time to enrol your child in an after school club or activity that is of interest to them. 

6)      Check the schools policy of gadgets in the school, including rules on mobile phones, I-pods, I-pads, tablets etc.  If your child is permitted to bring such devices into the school grounds make sure you have ‘marked’ them with your details that may help if they are lost or stolen.

7)      Get the shopping in! When buying lunches check all the dates, it’s very easy to pick up a pack of yogurts with a sell-by date of 3 days away, but the back of the shelf has yogurts with a sell-by date of two weeks away.  Also, prepare the lunches in the evenings before bed… one less thing to do in the mornings!

8)      Have a bedroom clear out.  Now would be a good time to do a clean and clear out in your child’s bedroom.  Clear out old clothes and toys and start fresh for September, a clear out may present an opportunity for your child to have their own desk for completing homework, if you do not already own one.  Do remember you can sell unwanted goods of reasonable quality on Gumtree.com.  It is free to place an advertisement and you could make some cash, there are also services available to buy unwanted clothing.  Companies can pay 50 pence per kilo for clothing and bedding, 50pence may not sound a lot, but it does add up.

9)      Prepare your car. If you drive your children to school, it is worth having your car checked from a safety point of view, check the tyres, oil levels, water levels, and brakes, and read tips for winter driving that are available on the internet.  It is also a good idea to spend a few hours cleaning your car, give it a good hoover and internal polish, to make it a nice cosy environment for you and your little ones when travelling.

10)   If your child is aged between 7 and 11 why not join http://www.keystagetwo.com This is a virtual learning environment that successfully manages to combine fun games with education.  It concentrates on the subjects your child is learning in school and will help boost their grades in a fun and engaging way.  KeyStageTwo.com is National Curriculum compliant and is now being used in schools and homes throughout Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the R.O.I.  Now taking sign-ups for September 2011 at http://www.keystagetwo.com or try the Demo at http://www.keystagetwo.com/demo

Good Luck for the new term folks!