Ideas To Smooth Transition From Naps To The Rest Of The Afternoon

[SilverSabre25]

Most of my day is working okay...except for the afternoons. My kids all/mostly get picked up very shortly after naptime. Most days, everyone is gone by 4:30. Nap is 1 to 3 or 3:30. Snack is at 3:30. Free play after that until pick up.

That time between waking up and leaving is just HELL these days. It's like my kids are having a really hard time transitioning from sleeping to waking and playing. Now granted, they all have been still sleeping at 3 these days, even still sleeping at 3:30 when I feel like I HAVE to wake them up (reason being so they can get snacks, diapers, potty, etc--I tried a week of letting them all sleep until they woke up on their own and it didn't go well for anyone). We're having a lot of whining, crying, fussing, and some fighting. Then pick ups are rather miserable because the kids are in bad moods--like they didn't even nap!

So, how do you transition your group from naptime to playtime? This has never been a problem up until a couple weeks ago, so I'm stumped.

[Country Kids]

I have had the same problems. One of mine has left kicking and screaming (literally) the last two days and I tell the parents that she has napped. She is one of my preschoolers that isn't going to sleep till right before naptime is over so I'm wondering if she jus isn't getting the sleep she is needing at naptime. I know I do horrible with a little nap, I need to be able to sleep till my body wakes its self up.

[Blackcat31]

So, how do you transition your group from naptime to playtime? This has never been a problem up until a couple weeks ago, so I'm stumped.

The same way we transition into naps. I wake them and we kinda just lay around being lazy and chatting while everyone rubs the sleep from their eyes. Pretty soon one dck will start talking and others start adding to the conversation. I put on some music that is a bit more animated than what we listen have to induce sleep and then we begin to read a couple books.

The books start out simple and then move to more animated. (The fan favorite right now is Giraffe's Don't Dance). Pretty soon, they are shouting out what happens next and demonstrating how they do what the characters in the book does. Waving their arms, shaking their legs, standing up, hopping...etc.

It is a slow process to get into nap and we simply use the reverse process to get everyone out of nap mode.

[tbutler]

The same way we transition into naps. I wake them and we kinda just lay around being lazy and chatting while everyone rubs the sleep from their eyes. Pretty soon one dck will start talking and others start adding to the conversation. I put on some music that is a bit more animated than what we listen have to induce sleep and then we begin to read a couple books.

The books start out simple and then move to more animated. (The fan favorite right now is Giraffe's Don't Dance). Pretty soon, they are shouting out what happens next and demonstrating how they do what the characters in the book does. Waving their arms, shaking their legs, standing up, hopping...etc.

It is a slow process to get into nap and we simply use the reverse process to get everyone out of nap mode.

Once they awake they are bringing me their blankets to fold and put in cubbies ( they started this themselves) and then they sit in our play area until they are awake enough to start talking to each other and coloring or playing. Then I fix snacks while they are doing that. They have snack, I clean mats while they are eating then give seconds of snacks and before I know it it's 4pm or a little after. I clean table while they go back to play area then we usually go outside for 20-30 mins and I take the radio out so they can listen to our cd's too while waiting for pickup.