25 Min Till Naps Over They Sleep!

[Country Kids]

In 25 min, nap will be over and my problem nappers decided to fall asleep. I'm still going to get them up and parents can deal with the issues tonight. I'm getting so tired of fighting them all naptime just to always have them fall asleep anywhere from 10-25 min before naps over.

Then they are like grizzly bears when we need to be getting up for snack and playtime.

[daycare]

CK let them sleep....

sleep begets sleep and it seems like your kids are on this never ending downward spiral of NOT sleeping....

I would let them sleep until they woke up and let the parents deal with it. Let them get into a routine of sleeping...

[DaisyMamma]

That's really hard. It's nice to let them sleep, but not fair to the other kids who did sleep nicely and want to go outside.
Maybe try to put them down a half hour later?

[My3cents]

I would let them wake up by themselves. I would carry on as usual and if the other kids woke them up, then it is time to get up. My wake up is three unless I have a child that is not feeling the best or has had a ruff day, I may let them sleep a little over. Not usually. Keep the same routine of how you do things every day and eventually they will get it and fall into place. You will have off days but once they know this is what we do everyday, they look forward to it too. Get outside in the morning for fresh air. This helps too.

[Country Kids]

I would let them wake up by themselves. I would carry on as usual and if the other kids woke them up, then it is time to get up. My wake up is three unless I have a child that is not feeling the best or has had a ruff day, I may let them sleep a little over. Not usually. Keep the same routine of how you do things every day and eventually they will get it and fall into place. You will have off days but once they know this is what we do everyday, they look forward to it too. Get outside in the morning for fresh air. This helps too.

We have had the same routine for the last 17 years-! These kids have been here 3 years and know the routine I'm would hope by now. We do get outside for fresh air every single morning for at least an hour if not more. We had even took 1/2 an hour walk before outside time.

[Unregistered]

Actually 15-25 minutes may be all they need, I read in woman's world a nap as short as 10 minutes can actually re-energize the brain just as effectively as an 8 hour night of sleep because they haven't started the R.E.M. stage yet so its enough to boost the energy without going into deep sleep. They say that a nap longer than 30 minutes and less than 1 hour can actually make you feel groggier because your brain has aready started going in R.E.M. sleep which is a deeper stage of sleep and is harder to wake out of.

If you still think they need a longer theres this one actor's breathing exercise, that I learned in a theater class, that I tried once with a 9 year old girl I babysat and she fell asleep around 1 and stayed asleep until about 4 (I really needed a break, it was saturday and I was in school full time and babysat 2 toddlers 3 times a week and baby sat her everyday that week). and everyday after that class I went home and took nap because it's exhausting.

Well anyway you can do this with all the children is start off with them laying on their mats on their backs. They should be facing the ceiling and tell them to put one hand on their bellies (tell them to pretend they have a "beach ball" in their tummy) tell them to blow all the air out of the beach ball (exhale) and tell them to inhale by taking deep breaths through their nose and to make sure that the air goes to the diaphram (the deeper the breath the bigger the "beach ball" inflates) and slowly exhale (deflate the beach ball slowly) and repeat several times. Then tell them to put another hand about a foot or more (maybe a whole arm length) above their mouths and have them focus on slowly exhaling strong enough to feel their breath hit their hand. Then have them repeat a few times. You may need to do it at first too, to show them what it should look like. then have them do this while closing their eyes and do this with you directing them. This breathing technique slows down their blood pressure/pulse rate and helps them clear their minds of all distractions, its actually very relaxing.

[DaisyMamma]

ha!
I'm having this same problem today. One little guy doesn't want to nap today. Nap will be over in an hour, I'm guessing he will fall asleep in about 20 minutes if not later.

Now, I'm getting 5 SA kids off the bus in an hour and have two other preschoolers who will all be ready to go outside and play. Am I suppose to make 7 kids stay inside and be quiet on a nice day? No way, nor do I want to clean up my house again. (I clean during nap and then we stay outside for the duration of the day). Instead I will have to deal with the cranky kid for the duration of the day. Poor guy will be tired, but he's not the only kid here.