Phasing Out Naps and Seeking Ideas for Quiet Time

call me crazy, but why would you totally discontinue her naps? my kids napped until they went to kindergarten. I can see phasing out a morning nap, and perhaps limiting an afternoon nap, so that bedtime becomes regulated, but she is still pretty young. naps are a good thing!

I have a family daycare and many of the children are starting to out grow nap. I went to WalMart and bought each of them a large tote bag. I put in their bags crayons, stickers, paper, books, a beanie baby, and I add things depending on the month. For September small counting apples were added to each bag. Next month I am going to add pumpkin cut outs with black triangles and tape or glue sticks. I also have magnet boards with magnets and Wikki sticks that will be used later in the year. Next week we are starting preschool so each bag will have a cut out of whatever letters we our working on. They may use their bags during naptime but must remain on their cots and be quiet. Each child is required to lay down for 15 minutes to rest first. This way the ones that need to nap will fall asleep.

My 4-year-old is done with naps, but my 3-year-old still takes one. I put a favorite video on & he stays in his room & plays quietly while his brother sleeps.

Hi C.,

My daughter and I started a quiet time soon after she turned three and decided not to nap anymore. Which, coincidentally, was right after her baby sister was born. We would lay on the bed and read or watch a movie together. Sometimes, she would even fall asleep unintentionally. Lately, we have started playing games (memory, bingo, etc.), doing puzzles or coloring. I guess anything goes as long as they are quiet and not running around. Good luck to you and your daughter!

C.,
My 4 year old, who just gave up naps a few months ago, is allowed to read a book in bed, be it a sticker book and play with the stickers or what we call a color book, which is one of those books that have the wipe board, etchesketch thing attached. He is also allowed to play with his little cars in bed. The rules are he must stay in bed, lights off, although its not too dark in there except for rainy days. He has a little box of a few toys and books he keeps on his bed, therefore he doesn't need to get out of bed at all. If he stays in bed and is quiet, he gets a sticker on his chart and when the chart is filled up he gets to pick out a new toy to put in the box for future quiet times.
Hope that all makes sense,
K.

My son is 3.5 and has given up naps on his own. He will occasionally fall asleep but then is up about 2 hours later at night than normal. But he definitely needs quiet time after lunch, usually when his baby sister is napping (so I get a break, too!). He plays in his room, lights off, with puzzles, books, sticker books or he's allowed to listen to some music with his headphones. My original plan was to have an hour long CD (MP3 player, whatever) so he knew when an hour was up. But he didn't take to that as well as I had hoped, so now we just make sure he's doing something quiet and "low-key". Maybe you could put some music in her room that sets a time for her to know how long she has to stay in "quiet time". Good luck!! And enjoy her quiet time for you, as well! :)

my daughter is also almost 3.5. She has been getting rid of her nap on her own for several months, but sometimes still needs one. When she does not nap I let her watch a video. Leap Frog has some great videos on the alphabet, words, and sentences. For almost a year now she has known all of her letters by sight, the sounds that each letter make and how to spell a few small words. This is all because the videos are very entertaining. Start with Letter and Word Factory. She started preschool a couple of weeks ago and the teacher was very impressed with what she knows.

I suggest no screens, quiet music, books or drawing supplies. I see others suggest videos and I think that's OK if she doesn't ever watch them during her "awake" time. But if that is something she does already a fair amount, I would make quiet time TV/video free.

Number one thing to do during quiet time (in my book) is reading together. The more you read to your child the more they will like reading later and the earlier they will read them selves. Read together at least 30 minutes a day.

S.

C., In my daycare when they got to the age that they no longer wanted/took naps we still had quiet time. I would let them have books. and always put a video on during nap/quiet time. that way those who wanted could watch or sleep. I didn't let them sit in front of the tv the rest of the day like zombies. but at nap time usually a disney video of some sort. what i would not do is incorporate anything that is a hands on for you to do. unless you want it to become an everyday thing.
S.

Hi C.! My 4 year old has quiet time during the day. Usually I'll have her have some down time for about 10-15 minutes where she isn't doing anything...just having some thinking time and sometimes, but not very often, she'll fall asleep. If she doesn't fall asleep then I'll have her pick out some books to look at and/or some puzzles to do. It's a hard transition when they decide to stop napping but at least this way they are getting some needed down time that also allows you to get some things done or have your own down time while they are having theirs!

Books and puzzles are always good. I also really like the No Mess Art supplies from Crayola.

Good luck.

I think you need to let her discontinue naps on her own, but you could adjust the time a bit. My 5 year-old still needs a nap occasionally. As she phased out of naps, I still tried to have a period where she would play quietly on her bed and usually fell asleep. Now she's old enough to know when she needs a nap or will just fall asleep playing. I wish she didn't have afternoon kindergarten, so she could nap if she needs to. At 3 and 4, they still need a time to be still and rest with the opportunity to nap, looking at a book or lying down with a couple of toys.

My 5 year old listens to chapter books on tape/cd. You can get them at the library. My three year old is required to stay in the pack and play for atleast an hour. He doesn't alway fall asleep, but it is quiet time. I do not view it as wasted time. I think our culture underates solitude, and this is a good time for him to experience it. I also put the pack and play in the bathroom, because it is dark enough in there. It's just too bright during the day in his room. Simple art projects are also good - coloring, drawing. If I just need a little more time, I will sometimes let my 5 year old do something on the computer - www.starfall.com or tumble books through the library's site. But that's not really as restful for her, it just buys me some time:)