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For those of you who nap kids all in the same room on mats. Do you stay in the room the whole time with them? Do you just sit right next to them or are you up and doing other stuff in the room?
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My kids all nap on mats in my living room. While they sleep, I fix my lunch in the kitchen, check Facebook, clean up, etc. I have the radio playing, so me moving around doesn't wake them. -
My kids all nap in the same room also. I go about my cleaning up, check the computer or do my paperwork. They sleep through itComment
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I sit there with them for the first 30 minutes or so. Then I get up and clean up from lunch, clean the restrooms, redecorate, make phone calls etc. If I have paperwork, then I sit there with them and do it.
Lately though, some of my activities have been curtailed because of my screamer wakes up 45 minutes in like clockwork, and she goes berserk if I'm not sitting there, even if she can see me in the next room. It's getting ridiculous though, she's almost 4....I'm going to let her start working it out on her own.Comment
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I do not stay in the rooms the kids nap in. My main area is centrally located so I am able to see all 3 rooms from the main area. I spend the time they nap, doing paperwork, cleaning, having lunch with DH and/or chatting on the forum.
My kids are all trained to know that if they should wake up early, they are NOT to get up from their mats until the CD is over. If they are non-sleepers, they also know they are to stay put until the CD ends.
I have to say ALL my nappers/resters are AWESOME and I have no problems with any of them once they are trained to sleep on a mat.
My CD story is usually 90 minutes long (I make them myself so I have control over how long the CD will run). It eliminates the need for kids to ask if nap time is over or if they can get up. They are all simply trained to know the signal, which is a "dinging" sound at the very end of the CD.
If anyone is still asleep at the end of the nap/rest period, they usually wake up when the others start picking up or they will sometimes stay asleep for a little bit longer and get up when ready.
Since being on this forum, I have to say I feel really bad for some providers who have such stressful nap times or have kids who just just don't work well with their nap methods and routines, because nap time has honestly NEVER been an issue for me.
I consider myself super lucky after some of the stories some providers have posted on here.Comment
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Love, love the CD idea! Is it all restful music? How young can you train them to stay quiet until it's over? Mine are still in pnp, but when they wake up, they start yelling to get out. I've tried every trick in my book and nothing has worked yet.Comment
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I have four 1yos and a 3yo who all nap in the same room. I have a fan going for white noise and air movement. I sit outside their bedroom with the door cracked until they are asleep or very close to it.
All my 1yos understand "lie down". I put them all in their beds/cribs and say "night night, time to lie down" and they all lie down. Sometimes one of my two toddler boys will try to be awake and up but all I say is "lie down" and they do. Takes about 10 minutes now for them all to sleep.
When I add a newbie to the mix I always get them onto my nap routine in a seperate room, so they understand my words and expectations before I put them in with everyone else.
It works for me and frees up so much space. I used to have everyone nap in seperate spaces...my closet (my son at the time, a walk-in w/a window), my room, my son's room, my daughter's room. Now they are all in the boys room and it works great.Comment
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I have a 2.5 hour nap. I keep them seperate until they understand, for the most part, to stay quiet the whole time. It took about 2 weeks for all of mine. When they wake up before nap is over I do the same thing I do at the beginning. Say, "Lie down" and they do. If they have napped 2 hours and I know aren't likely to really 'lie' for a half hour then I will quietly get them up. But that doesn't happen often as they all usually sleep 2.5 hours now. I also make a point to not pick anyone up out of their crib unless they were lying down when I reach for them. It sets an expectation that they lie in their cribs. It works well for me after a few weeks of being 100% consistent.Comment
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My CD's are actually books on cd that I buy from Scholastic. I copy several of them to a homemade CD. I can usually fit about 10 stories on one CD and that way I can control how long the CD's are. I used to use music but the ones who don't always sleep are bored then.
My little ones HAVE to lay still if they want to hear the story since I keep the volume low and I think laying there listening is an easy way to simply drift off to sleep.
My kiddos are transistioned to nap mats at around 12-15 months depending on each kid and their maturity levels. I start them on mats sort of half way between me and the rest of the kids. That way when I have to keep going over and putting them back on the mat, I am not disturbing the others.
It usually only takes 1-5 nap times for the kid to get it and stay put.
I don't bribe, plead or beg. I just use a firm voice with no expression, smiles or angry faces. Just a plain and simple command of few words. Such as "Lay down." or "Stay"
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Blackcat,, you make it sound so easy. :
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I was thinking that stories would keep their interest and keep them from going to sleep. But, how many times did I get my grandkids to sleep by reading to them. I guess the years faded my memory. ;-)
I actually have a ton of stories on my computer from the days that I made story tapes to mail to my grandkids. Maybe I'll pile all of them on a cd. Thank you so much!!!Comment
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Blackcat - love this idea. I have music and it's the same one everyday. I should probably mix it up but thought the kids wouldn't sleep then. Do you have some recommendations on stories?
I have good nappers/resters too and don't want to mess that up.Comment
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I have so many stories on CD that I could open a library!
I just buy the 4 pack of books on CD each month from Scholastic. They cost anywhere from $10-20 depending on what books are in the pack. I upload a bunch of them to my PC and then burn the file to one CD. I can get alot of stories onto one CD.
What is nice with Scholastic is that you also get the books that go along with the CD's and they are usually season related. I put the books on the shelf and the books that are the most read are the ones I try to put on one CD and then play that one. We really try to rotate them up quite a bit so none of the stories are too over used or boring....kwim?
I don't think my kids have any real favorites, they all just really love to listen to any story. (Sadly, I think this is because very few of them actually get read to at home
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The most requested ones right now are The Hungry Caterpillar, HICCUPotamus, Benny's Chocolate Bunny, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (and the others in this series) and the Llama Mama series!Comment
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Thanks!! I will be checking out the scholastic site right now. I think I have some points to use up.
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We have several napping rooms, but the largest one (that holds up to 10 children on cots) is where I stay during the full two hours. I sit at my desk and do work and if I have time, I come on here.
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