Get Kids Used to Their New Bedtime Before School Starts

Bed times usually start slipping further and further back as the summer plugs along. By the time summer ends, bedtime (Bedtime? What bedtime?) can be completely out of alignment with a regular school night schedule. The best way to make sure that your child, even your teenager, can meet his first days of school at his best is to get him to sleep early and up again early one week before school starts, when he doesn’t have a lot of new school responsibilities or a new routine yet. This is especially important if he’s beginning a new school altogether (which is inherently a little more stressful.) Remember that school-age children need 10-11 hours of sleep each night. It benefits everyone if they are well rested.