I have never been a stickler about bedtime. Bedtime in my house is around 8 o’clock not 8 on the nose. Since I homeschool, the older kids have an even broader bedtime. It is not as if the kids cannot get up in the morning. They may sleep in on weekdays at times, but if we needed to be up bright and early we were bushy failed and ready to go. However, school does not start until 9 or 10am. Then something happened that caused a stir; my oldest entered high school at a traditional school.
When my daughter entered high school our lazy days, busy days, and flexible schedule, changed. She has to get up early in the morning which means I do also. Then I need to pick her up in the afternoon. So late afternoons at the pool or the park have to be. It short a bit. In addition, it has become more important for her to get to bed on time. Since our mornings and early part of the day is the best time for homeschooling and field trips everyone has to get to bed on time. That was something my preschooler was not used to.
To begin our new routine we started a few weeks before school started. We tried a few different times to experiment with how much time would be needed to get the little ones off to bed. I really did not want to start bedtime at 7:30pm to make an 8:00pm bedtime. However, in the end, it appeared that for the little ones to be in bed at 8pm, they would have to start getting ready no later then 7:40pm. That gave enough time to change, brush teeth, read a book, and tuck them in. The girls responded well since they were allowed to look at books and play with Polly Pockets in bed as long as they were quiet. Soon, they would simply fall asleep by 8pm or soon after. The habit of going to bed seems to encourage a new routine. On most nights, due to activities, the bedtime routine doesn’t begin until 8pm. However, they were so used to bed being at 8pm, that they are asleep before 8:30pm. Consistency in the routine and sticking to a time when allowable seems to do the trick.