They Won’t Go To Sleep In One Room and I Can’t Take It Anymore!

[snbauser]

All of mine have always slept in the same room because we have an open floor plan and all of the bedrooms are upstairs which is off limits. I used to have 12 kids all sleeping at the same time. The lights go off, the music goes on and they stay on their cots. The older ones could take a book to their cot to read if they wanted. Part of the trick is to keep it consistent and know your kids. I would spread them around the room so that the ones who would cause issues were in areas that they couldn't see anyone else. I also used as many dividers as I could to separate them so they couldn't really see anyone. Put one on one side of a shelf and one on the other side. One in the dramatic play area, one in the block center, etc.

[sunlight]

I have to agree with Blackcat. Never have a super quiet enviornment. In my daycare which is also my home, I have a small ranch style home. I have an open floor plan with kitchen, dinning room, and living room conected. Before lunch time we try to do a "dance party". I turn on the music and the kids get to dance and run around a large ottoman. They love it! We do this for about 30 minuets or so. This helps us all get the wiggles out. Then we proceed with lunch and they each seperately go get their pillow and blankie. They pick a spot and lay down. I then turn on Soundscapes. It's on channle 934 on Comcast. Relaxation type music. I then go on to cleaning up after lunch and doing the dishes. I'm still being somewhat noisy but the background music helps drown out the sound. One by one they fall asleep. I have even started transitioning a 16 month old to sleep with the group. She loves it! Once they start to "escape" out of the PNP it's time to join the others! I have been doing this for nap time since 2000.

Hope this helps!

[MizzCheryl]

My group is always in the same room. I use white noise and room dividers to manage napping schedules. By never having a sterile/silent environment, the kids don't require one for napping.

same here.
I also use the furniture in the room to split the chidren up and if needed I drape towel or blakets over the funiture so the kids cannot see each other. They each have theri own private space. I play my nap music pretty loud and if they make noide I shhhsshh them. They all sleep at the same time in the same room and they are all out in 5 to 10 minutes.