5 years old falling sleep and waking up

[gaba]

My DS has always been difficult to put to sleep and we tried to let him go to sleep whenever he wanted. But now he needs to wakes up early to go to school so we need him to go to sleep earlier. He does not want to go to sleep and then the next day he does not want to wakes up. He sleeps for 12 hours straight but we are having a hard time for him to put his pj and brush his teet and go to sleep. He only wants to read books and play.

Any tips? Thanks!

[tracyamber]

is he on a nighttime schedule? i find a schedule is so useful and cues that it is "night night" time. our cues are walking around and turning off the lights(after dinner and bath). then we brush our teeth and put on our "night night" diaper.we always read about 7 books in bed. then turn off the last night and talk about our day in the dark in bed. i rock and sing about 4 songs and he's out for the night.