I have a five year old son in kindergarten with no daily naps. He sleeps from 8-6, 10 hours total. He has always been a great sleeper, and still occasionally will take a nap after school. Recently we started baseball and practice gets us home close to 8 three nights out of the week, so he is going to bed alittle later. I want to make sure he is getting enough sleep but lately he seems to be tired every day, unlike other 5 year olds I know. Should I be alarmed?
We started taking vitamins! He loves being outside and likes baseball. I am a single mom so having him in extra activities is good!
we will start going to bed earlier on the nights we don't have practice. His eating habits are good, no junk and plenty of fruits and veggies:) thank you for all the good advice!
It is my opinion that 3 nights of baseball practice is over the top for a five year old. Starting sports early in a childs' life is the parents dream...not the childs.
he needs 11 hours of sleep per day. sleep is more important than baseball.
If baseball is a short season keep going till it is done.. if it will go on for another month quit the sport and get that boy to bed.
my 4 and 5 year old are in bed at 730 and up between 630 adn 7.. so they get 11 to 11.5 hours of sleep each night..
It sounds like he needs more sleep. Five year olds generally require 10-12 hours of sleep a day. My son was still napping when he was five.
My 5 year old does not take naps. I try to get him to bed by 8:00, because he has to get up at 6:30. Sometime it really is closer to 9:00, and on those days he can be a grouch.
Is it possible to let him sleep a little later? We do everything we can to let our son sleep as late as possible, ie, closes out and ready before bed, Carnation Breakfast Essentials for breakfast, anything we can think of. The bus picks him up at 7:30, so he really does need to be up by 6:30. If he has a rough night, I switch my schedule around so that I can drive him to school, but that really only saves us about 15 minutes.
I would just try to see if you can come up with some ways to get him some more sleep. Good luck!
It does sound like he's not getting enough sleep, and probably not having enough time to rest his body. Full day kindergarden plus three days of baseball... that's a lot for a small growing body. 10 hours a night is enough for many kids, but some require 11 or 12 at age 5. And if you're not getting home until close to 8, he's probably getting to bed closer to 9, right? That would mean only 9 hours of sleep on the days when he's worked the hardest.
Not enough, in my book. Sorry!
that doesn't sound like enough to me, but my 5 year old still takes naps about 1/2 the time on the weekends, and is in preschool where they take naps every day. if he is tired, then he needs the sleep. baseball at 5 yo might be too much if he's going to kindergarten full time and not being allowed a nap?
I would be surprised if you said your 5 year old still napped. :-) It sounds like he's not sleeping late enough in the morning. If he has enough home time, initiate "rest time" or "quiet play." If he'll do that in the mornings after he wakes up even better.
My son is 5. He is in Kindergarten. Daily. Full Days. Currently they do not have daily naps anymore in school. But, my son IS tired after school and will nap occasionally.
And he also has daily homework.
For that reason... we do not have him enrolled in anything at night, weekdays, because, otherwise, he will be getting home too late during the week nights (like at 8:00pm as you say), and then, he would be getting not enough sleep. And, after any evening lessons, once we come home, then dinner has to still be eaten, and bathing still has to be done etc. and winding down.
So, that will be a really late night for him. All combined.
Thus no, at my son's age we do not have him in anything, that is scheduled during the week nights or evenings.
And, when he lacks sleep..... it affects their next day and in school and he gets fussy when over tired and cannot concentrate well, in school.
8:00 is my son's bedtime.
It takes my son.... about 2 days to catch up on sleep, when/if he is lacking sleep.
Lack of sleep, dominoes each day and compounds. Daily.
If lacking sleep daily, then the child never catches up on sleep. Maybe only on weekends getting enough sleep... but then once the weekday starts again, they will again, lack sleep due to night activities.
Your son, is overtired and lacking sleep.
Once a child is in elementary school, they can't really sleep in or wake up later in the morning. I gotta get the kids to school on time.
We are a family of sleepers and a busy schedule during the week when it's time for sports definitely takes its toll. All we can do since the sports a good thing too, is on the other nights or afternoons, get to bed a little early and/or grab a nap when possible, even after school. Vitamins help us and when we are eating better it's a help too.
3 nights of practice a week is excessive for that age group. I would pull him out of that and find another activity that doesn't have such a big time commitment. At five, my kids were in bed at 7:30 and up at 6:30 w/ no naps.
ALL of my Kindergarteners have come home & slept for a bit until they got used to a school schedule. Baseball practice after school is sure to wear the little man out.
Let him sleep mama. :)
The more activities they have the harder this gets. My 8 year old's activities sometimes don't begin until 7 or 730 and then she is a bear the next day because she usually goes to bed around 745. My 5 yo insists on getting up at 6A every day, even though we encourage him to sleep until 7. He doesn't get enough sleep either in my opinion, but they get their clocks set a certain way. See if you can get him to sleep a little later in the morning.
Can he sleep later in the morning? I would not be concerned.
