Coordinating Sleep Schedules

Hi K.. I do daycare and have 2 kids of my own as well. The ages in my care are: 5 months, 7 months, 10 months, a bunch of two year olds, a three yr old, and a four year old (lot of part timers). I always have 2 infants and 1 toddler, as well as some 2 yr old and the 3 yr old. I don't know if I am just lucky or if what i have done has worked or not. here goes: with the babies, i have them go down for nap between 8:30 an 9am. Every kid who starts here does the same schedule. When a new chidl starts, it takes anywhere from a day to a week before I can get the kids into the same schedule, but I don't budge. I let them cry (be sure your parents are okay with this) and eventually (within a week) the babies are on the same schedule. It has worked for me for 3 years now. They may not be tired at first, but put them down anyway and they will fall into that routine. In the afternoon, all of my kids nap at the same time. I putthe babies down about a half hour before the big kids, so they ahve the chance to "cry" before the others go down. The babies go down at 1:30 and the older kids at 2pm. We read a story everyday before naps so the kids know what is coming next. I also have the babies and other kids sleep in seperate rooms (infants in one room, older kids in another) and the windows in each room are covered with a blanket to keep it dark. I use a fan in both sleeping rooms, too...to block out any noise. Like I said, it may take a week (even 2) but the kids will fall into your pattern and you might even get a break! :) Sometimes the kids wake up before the others, but I always let the babies cry about 10 minutes before I go get them, b/c 90% of the time they fall back to sleep. with the older kids, they have to lay in the pack-n-play until I come get them (usually they are all still sleeping and I end up waking them up!) I don't know if this will work for you or if it's something you'd even want to try-but it works for me. I get at least an hour to myself everyday-most days I get 2 hrs!

As for the older kids who don't nap, if they are school age I let them (play in the basement away from the nappers) and watch a video, play video games, or read book/do puzzles during nap time. I'm not sure what county you ar ein but you could let the school ager play outside during nap time, too. I never did with my school agers b/c they weren't very good listeners and I always worried they would get into trouble!

Just some thoughts...I hope you get it worked out! This job is hard exhausting enough...I can't imagine without a little break!

Hi K.,

It's always fun getting everyone on the same schedule, but you just have to adjust their naptimes to your schedule. It will work...I usually put the younger ones down for a nap about 9 am and make sure they are up no later than 10:30 am, so they will be ready for an afternoon nap by 1 pm with the older children. Everyone at my house takes a nap in the afternoon, so we don't have anyone waking up the little ones. In this past summer I had two eight year olds taking a nap, and they were always ready. Sleeping is a habit, so if you get them use to taking a nap, they are as tired as the younger ones when 1 pm comes around. Plus, it gives you some down time, and time to do a few chores.

When you go outside to play are you too far away to use a baby monitor? That is what we do once in awhile. I put a monitor in with the baby, and take one with us and were set. Of course, we only play right outside the house.

Good luck with the nap schedules.

C.

My mother in law does daycare and has been for 20 years. She dictates the schedule, not the kids. If she has any that need morning naps she tries to put them down around 9 or so and only lets them sleep for an hour. She gets them up and then all of the kids lay down at 12:30. Some don't want to settle down right away and toss and turn, but she keeps it dark and they stay down until almost 3 when she starts getting them up. She gets the ones who go home first up first. It doesn't take them long to get into the routine. I have worked with her before and it really works great.

I use to work for a friend at her inhome daycare. This is what we did.

Babies under 1 year had a morning nap before lunch I wanna say sometime around 10amish.. when they were over the age of 1 or before 15mos. old forsure we started to wean them off their morning nap.

Then we had afternoon nap after lunch from 1-3 everyday. If the baby was a small infant they weren't included but EVERYONE else napped no matter what. Kids older than 4-5 had quiet time, movie, books etc, no talking.

I know this is technically not "legal", but my parents know and agreed to this, and were actually glad since it benefitted their kid, but I invested in a nice moniter and we actually had our outdoor time during the infants am, pm naps. Not always, but usually am for certain. Ater I would get the little ones settled I had the moniter and would head out to the back yard, locking the front door always so no one could come into my home without my knowledge. This really worked well for us since my baby could actually get a GOOD nap. On days when we couldn't be out, I relied on a box fan to drown out the playing noise. I have ALWAYS used this method for my own and my daycare kids.

As far as nap schedules, I woked on getting them on MY schedule/ routine, not their home one. They adjust to it, but that way I could work out everyone the way I need it to so that everyone in the house gets what they need for all the different ages.

If you ever want to exchange questions or ideas, send me a private message!

Good morning, K.! Well, it sounds like you need to have something that works for all the kids, and (you probably know this as well as I do) they just don't cooperate like we want them to! (smile) I think a practical solution would be to keep a stroller handy as well as a light jacket and bonnet, depending on the weather, for the baby so you could load her up for a trip to the park. She wouldn't mind and the kids can get their exercise. It might be a little rough in the beginning, but the routine would work after a few times. What with our changing weather and our growing kids, we have to adjust all the time. It's what mothers do! Have a beautiful day!!