Fall Back Without Falling Off Track
Daylight Saving Time….twice a year this day strikes and if you haven’t adjusted your kiddos bed time ahead of time, it can be a nightmare. The good news is that I believe that the fall time change is the easier to adjust to.
Here are some helpful tips that work well for our family. They have helped us maintain bedtimes (and our sanity!) over the past seven and a half years.
I hear ALL THE TIME that people wish their kiddos would go to bed earlier. Well, this is the PERFECT time to start. In fact, if you have been wanting your kiddos to go to sleep a little earlier, you can literally do nothing and have your kiddos going to bed an hour earlier!
Bedtime for our sons is 7:30pm (ages 7.5 and 5.5 at the time of this post). Basically, we bump up time back by 10 minutes everyday for about a week. While our boys do not nap anymore (sad, I know!), when they did nap, we let the nap times adjust on their own and focused solely on bedtimes.
We love using this extra time together for bonding. Extra reading time, Lego building and Hot Wheel racing. Embrace this time and use it for some simple pleasures that will create sweet memories with your kiddos.
Below you will see how our family adjusts for the Fall time change. It will have your children staying awake longer, but only for a week. Then you are right back where you want to be with minimal tiredness:
Current Bed Time: 7:30pm
Day 1: 7:40pm
Day 2: 7:50pm
Day 3: 8:00pm
Day 4: 8:10pm
Day 5: 8:20pm
Day 6: 8:30pm
Day 7: 8:30pm (which is now 7:30pm)
Click HERE to get your FREE PRINTABLE Fall Back Time Change - 1 Week Prep Worksheet
The biggest takeaways here are to be consistent.
If you think your child needs more time to adjust try this schedule over the course of two weeks:
Current Bed Time: 7:30pm
Day 1: 7:40pm
Day 2: 7:40pm
Day 3: 7:50pm
Day 4: 7:50pm
Day 5: 8:00pm
Day 6: 8:00pm
Day 7: 8:10pm
Day 8: 8:10pm
Day 9: 8:20pm
Day 10: 8:20pm
Day 11: 8:20pm
Day 12: 8:30pm
Day 13: 8:30pm
Day 14: 8:30pm (which is now 7:30pm)
Click HERE to get your FREE PRINTABLE Fall Back Time Change - 2 Week Prep Worksheet
**PS....Fun Fact! Did you know the correct term is "daylight SAVING time?” Not "daylight SAVINGS time??" A special thanks to my friend, Jodie, for sharing this!
