what's your winding down to bed ritual?

[mommabeehilly]

so dh has "off" hours at work. goes into the office sometime after lunch, does his work and gets home around 9:30pm. it is a schedule that is a bit wacky but works for us...most of the time. the tricky part is i handle bedtime alone.

as i am reading you are your child's first teacher there is a lot of information about a night time ritual. now we've had one prior to reading the book and since then i've made some additions like lighting a candle. but the whole process of winding dd down for bed takes over an hour (i will happy expound on the details, if anyone is interested). i just was curious what others did and what they found helped in this area. i know this is not a much-talked-about topic in waldorf, but from the whole-life perspective, i feel it is relevant.

[LuxPerpetua]

DD is 3 and still needs to be parented to sleep. Usually, we have dinner and then play a while as a family (she sometimes gets a bath, sometimes not). Then she has a boiled egg snack, we brush teeth (which is usually an adventure, since I have to continually make up stories to keep her entertained while I brush), we put on pjs, and then snuggle and read books by our booknook by flashlight for 30 minutes (candlelight does not work as well for this). Then, we turn off the flashlight and I sing and rock dd while she nurses and then she falls asleep. She isn't ready for this right now but when she is I want to add in a daily Bible story at bedtime, lighting a candle and saying our prayers together as a family, and then singing her to sleep. I'm really in awe of the power of singing to sleep--dd is 3 and knows hundreds of melodies and song lyrics because I've been singing to her since she was a wee babe (I'm a trained vocalist). And she has a tremendous love of singing and sings all the time herself, which melts my heart.

[sarahloughmiller]

This is our nighttime thing:

5:15pm dinner:including blessing & candles
-After dinner straight into bath and they play in there while I clean up from dinner and straighten up the toys and turn off all lights in the house except bedroom
-Jammies, then brush teeth
6:30pm into the bedroom for stories. I lay on the bottom bunk (a full size bed) with one of my twins on each side and my older ds is on the top bunk. We have christmas lights we plug in for reading at night and each kid gets a sippy cup of water.
My twins fall asleep while I read (I read from a Grimms fairy tale book that has no pictures) and then about 7pm I leave the room and older ds goes to sleep.

All kids are usually asleep by 7:15pm which is wonderful!!!

[counterGOPI]

our routine:

5:00 sing 'lets set the table', set the table and light the candle, say our mealtime verse. eat dinner

6:00 clean kitchen

6:30 quiet family playtime with dh

6:50 get baby dressed for bed

7:00 moon is round verse for baby and nurse to sleep

7:30-8:00
go see dh and 3 yo dd. start walking upstairs singing the 'brush your teeth song,dd follows. brush our teeth while i continue to sing.
go potty one last time while singing the potty song.
get dressed in wool pjs say goodnight to daddy go up to room light candle and read 1 bedtime story. blow out candle.
do the moon is round verse turn of lights and cuddle until she falls asleep. then go have some freetime with dh

[yukookoo]

My dh comes home very late also and goes to work early in the morning. For a long time i kept dd up to see him, sometimes even as late as 11:30 at night. After reading you are your childs first teacher I just put my foot down haha It was also incredibly long and hard days for me. He would see her for 2 min then go about the rest of his evening eating, undressing etc, and I would be fighting her in bed cause she knew dad was home it was just crazy. Now she goes to bed at 9. If he is home earlier great, if not too bad, she's asleep or on the way there.

Since we've started this dh makes a really big effort to be home by 9 to at least do our routine together. it works out well and we are all pretty happy.

5:00 - bath
6:00 in door free play and handwork for me sometimes coloring or calm art haha for her
7:00 dinner
walk in ergo carrier outside
8 - 845ish reading in reading nook
9:00 turn on bedtime music, turn off lights. Light candles sing storytime song, read a poem, since special lullaby and nurse to sleep.

If dad is home early he takes her for a walk and i get time alone rare but great wheni t happens

[mommabeehilly]

Originally Posted by sarahloughmiller

(I read from a Grimms fairy tale book that has no pictures

All kids are usually asleep by 7:15pm which is wonderful!!!

sarah-
little :jealous: here
what is the grimm's book you use?

[mommabeehilly]

Originally Posted by counterGOPI

our routine:

5:00 sing 'lets set the table', set the table and light the candle, say our mealtime verse. eat dinner

7:00 moon is round verse for baby and nurse to sleep

7:30-8:00
go see dh and 3 yo dd. start walking upstairs singing the 'brush your teeth song,dd follows. brush our teeth while i continue to sing.
go potty one last time while singing the potty song.
get dressed in wool pjs say goodnight to daddy go up to room light candle and read 1 bedtime story. blow out candle.
do the moon is round verse turn of lights and cuddle until she falls asleep. then go have some freetime with dh

countergopi....
you sound like you have some great songs and verses. will you share? or send me to a resource???

thanks!

[counterGOPI]

absolutely!! i should be able to post them later tonight

i forgot to add during our quite family playtime my 3yo dd gets her 'night time mama nummies' :

[counterGOPI]

ok due to copyright i can't post the songs but our teeth brushing songs, lets set the table song, and potty song all came from 'this is the way we wash a day' from naturally you can sing. we loveall of her books/cds.

all my verses i get from my former waldorf teacher friends, 'deven times the sun' and ' the singing day' i hope that helps!!

[counterGOPI]

oh and yes! id love to hear your routine!

[mommabeehilly]

Originally Posted by counterGOPI

i hope that helps!!

that does help, thanks.
now i need to figure out where to get these....

oh and our rhythm....

5:30pm dinner
6:15pm clean up kitchen and tidy house for the day
7:00pm snuggles, reading, nurse, gentle play together
7:30pm light candle, gather pjs, brush teeth, wash up (face & hands) prepare room for sleep
7:45pm tuck into bed and read night time books, nurse, and put "babies" to bed, sing night time song and give a little back scratch
really i just stay in bed with her and nurse and let her put her "babies" to sleep (they have a little bed, covers that are all cotton and soft). i read my book next to her as she gets settled and usually can leave the room around 8:30pm.

i'd like to get a verse or two into the mix. i used to wear her down, but now my back has started bothering me and since then i adapted by bringing a little canvas bag into the bed that has her babies and night time books and just snuggle in with her until she is fast asleep.

[AngelBee]

:

[counterGOPI]

threesisterstoys.com carries them. theres a thread on here right now with a coupon code for 25% off too!

you routine sounds wonderful!

[RollerCoasterMama]

I just tried the story by candle-light tonight instead of in the dark. I've been kind of nervous to do anything with open flames around my little crazy boy. But I held him and he enjoyed watching it and we established that when I said "the end" he could blow it out. The very moment I said "the end" he blew it out. Then he wanted to light it again, but I'm holding firm. He was so calm and quiet watching the candle. I may use that more often!! Thanks all for giving me the courage!

Otherwise our routine is eat, pjs, read our "Night Night Prayer" book with Daddy, then usually a fairy tale in the dark told by me. We're just learning to sleep in a big boy bed, so it isn't completely smooth, but most nights it goes pretty well. Tonight doesn't appear to be that night! I hear him yelling at the cat for being naughty and rattling toy pots and pans!

[sarahloughmiller]

Well, tonight was the hardest night we have had in a long time so I think I need to revise bedtime! Miles would not shut his mouth! We read 4 stories (more than usual) and they always fall asleep during stories and then I laid there forever with them before he would stop talking and go to sleep.

mommabeehilly - the grimms book we have is an old one that was my dads. It is great, I so love it! My boys will not go to sleep if there are pictures in a book but it is soooo hard to find one without. My mom did get the boys this book and one called Andersen's Fairy Tales that appears to be published by the same people (they look almost the same) and there are no pics in them. The one I linked to has some Grimms and a bunch of other stuff too. They are probably no the original tradition versions but they work for us.

http://www.amazon.com/Childs-Book-St...2076667&sr=8-1