Does Your 5/6 Year Old Nap?

Whoa. All of the 'my kid stopped napping at two' answers. I would have lost my mind, and so would they.
My kids are 5, 3, and 1 1/2 and they all nap. My 5-yr-old only does it about twice a week (but will sleep from 1-5!), and my 3 yr-old can miss the occasional day, but they all still need it. Maybe they all just got their dad's sleeping genes :)

Both of my boys LOVE to nap. They are 7 and 5. My 9 year old daughter will nap sometimes if she is really bored or has had a busy morning.

I LOVE that they all nap and still love their quiet time even if they don't want to sleep. My boys will put themselves down to nap though.

Um - my boys stopped napping at 3... and my daughter (the third child) stopped at less than that... more like 2 1/2.

I'd think I died and went to heaven if they still napped at 5 or 6!!

I think it is unrealistic to expect them to be quiet for two full hours. Send them outside after a 45 minute rest time.

My son who is 5, almost 6, does nap!
Not everyday like he used to, but about 3 times a week, he naps.
No battles.
He is so active and needs it.
He even knows that himself.
He will tell me "Mommy I'm tired, I want to nap."
And even with a nap, he still goes to bed at night just fine.

While my son is napping, my 9 year old daughter will read, or draws, or makes slideshows with our photos on the computer, or plays games on my Husband's iPad, or she goes outside to garden or play, or watches a movie.
Or if my daughter is real tired, she will fall asleep too.
My son naps for 2 hours.
It goes by fast, and quietly.
Because... my daughter KNOWS that when brother is napping.... things have to be quiet.
You just tell the child that.
Quiet.
Its a no brainer.
My daughter is able to do that.

I have twin 5 year old girls and they nap sporadically. After swim lessons, they're happy to take a 2 hour nap, and on weekend days where they've been extra active I can usually get them to nap. But on the rest of the days... no. We do enforce quiet time in their room for an hour each day, though. They can read books, talk quietly, dream, whatever... but it must be quiet! (no DS or TV during that time, though)

I don't think that mine could be quiet and still for two hours. If you absolutely need that, perhaps the first hour in their room reading and chatting and then the second with TV or games -- but only if they're quiet the first hour?

Wow, I don't think your abnormal at all. Both my kids stopped napping everyday around 2 1/2 - 3...lucky me. :) I remember when we went in for a visit with my oldest daughter's soon to be Kindergarten teacher. She said that she had a nap time but went by what the majority of the class did. Well after chatting with parents I found most of them had kids who did not nap. My daughters class ended up being a non napping class.

My youngest is about to turn 5 and like I said has not taken naps for quite some time now.

I don't know what to advise about keeping them quiet. Sounds like you've suggested quite a bit. I guess it would be on the babysitter to figure something out. My mom used to watch kids and would keep the sleepers in a separate room from the non sleepers.

I have an in-home daycare. In my experience, its very rare for a child to still be napping at 5 or 6...unfortunately. a 30-60 min quiet time should still be required, however.

I keep 4 and 5 year olds and out of 4, 3 of them nap (1 four year old and 2 five). My 4 year old doesn't nap, but so I turn on her tv and she can play in her room but she's still loud at times. I just keep reminding her that the other kids are sleeping and to be quiet.

Heck no! My 6 year old hasn't napped since he was about 2 on any sort of consistent basis (e.g. more than once a week). When he was in pre-K (age 5, so one of the oldest), about a 1/3 to 1/2 of the class did not nap. I know many kids will nap every other day at that age though - or every few days. My oldest also gave up napping completely at about 2 1/2. His sitter used to try and force him to nap, and it was always a major battle. I ended up hiring a new sitter, and she just gave up all together with naps, and went and did fun stuff with him instead. I guess your's can't do that if you have other's napping, but maybe playing outside with the older kids? In pre-K, DS was required to have quiet time for about 20-30 mins, then was allowed to read or watch a video if he was 'good' during quiet time. I guess as a reward of sorts.

Nap? What is that? lol

My daughter is 6 and she hasn't napped at home in a long time. Unless we are in the truck at just the right time for just long enough... lol

She had naptime at Kindergarten, and Pre-K, but she didn't always sleep. I'm not sure what she did during that time tho.

Not sure what else to suggest, except coloring.

Hah! My three year old stopped napping 6 months ago. He does have an hour of quiet time, though.

Oh my goodness, no. My daughter refused to nap beyond 2 years old. We have many friends w/ young kids and most haven't napped since age 2 or 3.

My daughter is five and she does not nap and hasn't for a while. I tell her it's quiet time and that she can play in her room quietly. She usually just plays with dolls or reads her books. Usually about 1 hour or so. I still do this with my 8 year old too. Just a time that they can wind down and I can have a little time to myself.

All kids are different but my 6 yr. old hasn't taken naps in years. I don't think you are the odd ball, I think you are the norm.

Maybe the people you hang out with put their kids to bed late.
You probably are putting them to bed on time and that is why they don't nap. At that age, they need 10-11 hours of sleep. On school nights, my 6 yr. old is in bed at 7:30.

How about baking or cooking for an activity? Sugar cookies are kinda fun (you can buy the pre made pillsbury cookie dough). They have to roll them out, use cookie cutters, bake them, cool them and then they can decorate them. Get white frosting and food coloring to make diff. colors, get some "pen style" frostings as well. That will eat up a few hours. It's cheap and a bit creative if they like to decorate. If a holiday is around the corner like July 4th, get red, white & blue and they can make flags, firework themes, etc. We keep a few but then we take the rest to the neighbors.

My daughter is 5 and yes, she still naps. I don't force it, but if she is tired and cranky she will either lay herself down or I just tell her it's quiet time so she can rest. There is a definite difference of when she needs and nap and does or doesn't get one! All kids are different, she is a sleeper so a nap is needed where as my oldest seems to not need sleep at all if you ask her!
As far as activitiesit seems like you have some good ideas, but taking the others outside is a good way to ware them out!

ALL kidz are different...if they WANT to still nap then, COOL :) if they WANT to stay up then they simply don't need the, 'down' time...if the other children are being rowdy then EVERYONE needs to have, 'quiet time', they don't have to sleep BUT they DO have to, 'rest' quietly, read on their bed, etc.. Good luck!

My 5 1/2 year old is just starting to go off naps (sometimes). He probably naps 5 days a week (he needs it!). On the days that I can tell he just doesn't want to, I give him books from the library (we have "story books" to read, but then I'll also get something bigger: a human body and how it works book that has interesting pictures from the bigger kids section of the library, OR a neat photo book that can keep him looking and thinking...colors or a pen and some paper, or permission to write on his dry erase board and draw pictures, write his name, numbers, or practice letters. Those magnetic letters to make words? Little green army guys that take up time to set up and make little battles in your mind? Another thing I do sometimes is take the kids swimming or racing, or just running a few laps and then stretch, and then cooling down with a drink of water or lemonade before nap helps. (Joseph's class runs laps around the gym for kung fu, so he doesn't have a problem with me telling him to run along the fence line 3 times). When I used to provide inhome childcare the little kids took naps after snacktime, which was after I picked up a 6 year old from half day kindergarten. So, I'd pick up the 6 year old, we'd all have snack and chat, and after snack little ones went to bed and the older one could watch a movie, play a board game or cards with me, play doh, do his homework, or do a special craft that I couldn't easily do with little ones around as much (paint, watercolors, instead of reading a story to him which is what I'd do if everyone was awake, I'd work with him a little on sounding some words out and "reading" together or helping with counting beads, pennies, whatever while the little ones slept...etc). Sometimes we'd do little projects where he thought he was helping....we'd sort the money in the change jar and learn what each coin was, and I let him keep the money that was the year he was born. After sorting the coins, we'd count them out and roll them. It sounds stupid, but it was fun for the little boy and just reenforcing what he was learning at school. It's one thing to look at a picture of a quarter in a workbook and another thing to hold the quarters. Babysitting takes creativity. And in my experience, active children need more rest. I might make someone mad, but I am guessing that if a 2 or 3 year old is not napping, then they need to watch what they're eating, and am guessing that they're not swimming or running around at the park a lot. Just saying...
On top of suggesting things they can do and providing materials (the ds, books, etc) I would suggest that the nappers be in one room and the non-nappers lay down on their mats in the living room or den. That way they won't "disturb" the nappers so much. How about learning how to do different paper airplanes and sending over a bunch of paper? (I had the Dangerous Book for Boys and learned a few airplane styles and the 6 year old I babysat loved to make fleets of planes and then to make it last longer I'd give him crayons and have him decorate the planes. I made mine with a pilot waving in the window, and he got excited about that and worked h*** o* his "fleet").

My 5.5 yr old will rarely go down for a nap without a fight. But, he's sleeping now, after I laid down with him for 20 minutes and then snuck out.

ETA: As for keeping them busy, that sounds like a great time to do a craft, or play some board games, work on a big puzzle, do some Lego project, help make a snack for after nap time, etc. Maybe let them play outside and bring out a baby monitor for the napper?

My son is not quite 5 and does not nap anymore. He stopped shortly after turning 4. My almost 2 year old daughter still naps, but I can almost guarantee that she will not be napping past 3.

My boys both gave up naps at about two. It is so much nicer when you don't have to plan activities around nap times. They went to pre-school three afternoons a week when they were 3 and 4, and afternoon kindergarten when they were 5, so even if they were nappers they would not have been able to. Two hours is a really long time to expect a 5 and a 6 year old to be quiet. I might look for a different babysitter.