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Comfy clothes and bedding. If normal duvets aren’t working you could try old fashion blankets, they feel heavier and the weight of the blankets can be calming, they can also be tucked in to help a child feel more secure. There are also specially made weighted blankets and they even make adult sized ones!

In the mid to late evening our bodies produce a hormone called melatonin which helps the body get ready for sleep. Tablets, phones and laptops, LED lights and flat screen TV’s emit blue light which reduce melatonin concentrations and this make it harder to fall asleep. TV’s (unless they are very large) aren’t too much of a problem unless you sit too close, otherwise limit screen time in the evening, and no screens for the last hour at least. Exciting or scary programs aren’t conducive to a relaxed evening and can lead to nightmares, so even if you don’t think your child is paying attention to the TV, don’t watch programs with adult themes with them in the room.

It’s best to keep bedrooms just for calm activities and sleeping, or at least tidy up and pack away distractions well before bed.

Soothing scents and sounds can help too, some scents like lavender are traditionally used to promote sleep . Some children enjoy the noise of a mobile or even the noise of a fan running.

Don’t forget to brush teeth and put on a clean nappy (or a trip to the toilet for a wee) before getting into bed.

Then a story before you tuck them up in and kiss them good night. Ideally you then leave the room and hopefully they will fall asleep. The plan should be for a child to fall asleep without being rocked, patted or otherwise soothed to sleep so that if they wake they can go back to sleep without needing you there. (Well that’s the plan!)

Co-sleeping isn’t recommended by health professionals as there have been deaths due to babies getting under pillows or blankets, certainly never co sleep if you are under the influence of drink or drugs.

When your children are asleep consider catching up on some sleep yourself. “Many nights I’d settle down for a relaxing evening and a good film only to find the moment I’d get into bed a child would be getting out of theirs!”

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If children get up-

Try not to get involved in long drawn out conversations, extra stories, drinks or anything else, some children are experts at delaying bedtime. (Drinks at bedtime mean they are more likely to wake for a wee in the night but you could leave a sippy cup with a little water within reach of the bed).

Keep lights low or off, send the signal in your voice and body language that’s it bed time, you are tired, everything is very boring and they aren’t missing anything, and then put them back in bed. Don’t talk to them unless you really have too and then keep the tone flat and boring, avoid eye contact.

Repeat as necessary.

If your child can hear the TV, chat and laughter from another room they are going to want to be up to join in, so try to keep the rest of the household quietish at least until the youngest are asleep.

Lots of children and families struggle with sleep, and sleep routines. If sleep problems are causing you worries and if lack of sleep is making it hard for you to function, seek help, from a health visitor, GP or online, (try the NHS or the Millpond Sleep Clinic websites.)

Tiny Toes Childcare[pic]

Learning Through Play

Sleepy Heads

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Getting a Good Night’s Sleep

I’m not entirely sure this is even possible when you have children, but we can try.

Similar advice applies to children and adults.

Try to have a similar routine every night to help wind down towards bedtime and sleep. Go to bed and wake up at the same time everyday including weekends and holidays.

Wind down and relax during the evening and avoid vigorous activity/exercise for at least an hour before bed. Children often get bursts of energy just when you think they should be getting sleepy. Often they are sleepy and they are actively trying to stay awake by jumping about! If this happens a lot consider a trip to the park or a kick around in the garden before the bedtime wind down starts to get rid of any pent up energy.

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Perhaps try a warm bath- this ideally warms the body up a little to reach an ideal temperature for rest, but some children don’t find baths relaxing, so a snuggle under a blanket together while you read a story will have the same effect.

Have the bedroom warm, but not too a hot- 18-21 degree C is ideal.

Children shouldn’t have caffeinated drinks and it’s recommended adults should avoid tea, coffee and coke etc. for at least 4 hrs before bed.

Fresh air and exercise during the day also leads to better sleep.

Everyone needs to sleep, but just how much or how little depends on the individual and their age.

Good quality, restful and restorative sleep is very import to children and also for their carers.

Too little sleep messes with your emotions, affects your immune system, and leaves you unable to make sensible decisions, affects your appetite and long term sleep deprivation in adults is implicated in several potentially serious health problems.

But as all parents know having young children is almost always guaranteed to leave you longing for an uninterrupted night’s sleep and a decent lay in to help catch up on the ZZZZ’s.

So the stages of writing are

1 Gross motor skills and fine motor skills

3Scribbling

4 Drawing and representing objects and ideas in picture form. (although you will probably not be able to tell what the child is drawing just by looking at it)

5 Writing like scribbles

6. Odd letters that look like letters, often within a pictures.

7. Mock words, random letters clustered together in to word like patterns.

8. Children may enjoy copying words and are often taught to copy their own name at this stage. They are still a long way from beginning to write and letter and sound recognition skills are more important than being able to copy letters.

9. Words that are similar phonetically to the word the child wants to write. Initial letters may come first before a child can attempt to sound out the rest of the word or they may sound the whole word, e.g. r instead or are

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If you require further information or advice please do not hesitate to contact your child’s key person.

Tiny Toes Childcare[pic]

Learning Through Play

Sleepy Heads

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Sleep problems and strategies to help.

Promoting Partnership

Later things start to look more letter like.

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Mazes

Around now a child may enjoy tracing mazes or pictures. Laminated printouts and dry wipe markers mean a child can practice again and again.

Copying or tracing letters

Often the first word a child learns to write is their own name. Write the word normally using a capital letter to begin with and small letters for the rest. (Paul). Small letters are the first letters a child will practice and capital letters come later, although use capital letters normally

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So how much sleep do you need?

A new born baby will usually sleep between 14 and 17 hrs every day, while and older adult will need only 7-8 hours sleep. But there is variation depending on the individual.

Adults in the 26 to 64 age bracket need anywhere between 6 and 10 hrs a day but the magic number to aim for seems to be 7 hrs sleep a day.

Which starts with a different

sound to the others?

With toddlers the recommended number of hours sleep in 24 hrs is somewhere between 11 and 14 hours, but more or less hrs might suit some children.

For a child aged 3-5 years old the recommended number of hours sleep is 10-13 hrs but again there is going to be variation depending on the individual.

If you or your child needs to woken up in the morning then you probably aren’t getting enough sleep.

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Up to around 3, sometimes 4 years of age children still nap. The younger they are the more of their daily sleep is taken in naps, for example; a new born might nap 8 hrs during the day and sleep 8 hrs at night, but they might be up as often as every 2 hours for a feed!

Most children will have dropped all the day time naps by 3 or 4 years old.

There is no hard and fast rule, it often seems that you have just organised a schedule around your child’s naps and then everything changes, again!

There is no ‘right time’ for bed time, that is going to depend on what works for your family, as long as everyone can get the sleep they need, but once children start school they will need to be up in time for school so bed times will need adjusting accordingly.

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