According to the National Sleep Foundation (who knew such a place existed… if I get a job there do I get to nap all day long?), kindergarten age children need between eleven and thirteen hours of sleep a night. With a full day program, we often see sleepy heads by the end of the day. Funny thing is, during our rest time, most children don’t actually rest. I think they’re afraid they’re going to miss something.
I’ve had many parents look surprised when we have the sleep talk. It usually goes something like this:
Me: I’ve noticed little Johnny seems tired most days, what time does he go to sleep?
Parent: Oh usually he get’s into bed around nine o’clock and then we read and tuck him in.
Me: (as tenderly as possible) Um, well, I usually go to bed at nine o’clock and I’m a grown man. Five-year-olds need on average about twelve hours of sleep a night.
Parent – look of surprise and shock and then: Oh, we’ll have to work on going to bed earlier!
As for Martin, he clearly hadn’t gotten his eleven to thirteen the night before. It was as if he needed to put his pajamas back on and go curl up in the corner of the room. I felt bad for him and also wondered if there was a reason he was so tired.
“Martin, you seem tired today, do you know what time you went to bed last night?” I asked him.
“I’m so tired ‘cause my mom tucked me in and then poof she was waking me up,” he stammered.
That was all I was getting out of him. We tried to have him take it easy the rest of the day and I told him to try and catch up on some sleep over the weekend. He did offer many hugs throughout the day, which while nice, I think was really just a way for him rest for a few seconds.
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7 comments:
Hi. This is Mrs. Pearce from www.icanyoucantoucanclass.
I enjoy following your blog and appreciate you giving the blogging world a humorous and loving peek into your classroom.
BTW...I am also glad that I am not the only Kindergarten blogger posting early on a Sunday morning. It makes me feel alot more nOrMaL.
9 o'clock? Really? My kids are in bed and asleep by 8. This is a matter of self-preservation.
I have a little boy in my class that it is very evident when he does not get his sleep. He does sleep during nap and it is very hard to get him up. Mom quit her job and that helped a lot. Little boy got to bed much earlier and was so pleasant. Last Friday, this little one began to throw an all out tantrum that he had to move his fish. This is not like this little one and he moves his fish atleast once a day. He has never acted like that. I took him to a quite spot and let him lay on a cot and told him if he needed to rest or sleep he could. He took a power nap of 15 minutes and was back to the kiddo I love!
Later he told me he had watched a scary movie and could not sleep! Scary movies...oh yeah that is another topic :D
Poor kid!
I work overnight shifts once a week. . . and boy do I understand how not sleeping makes for emotional breakdowns!
Ask them what was on tv when they went to bed, that is usually very enlightening. When I have kids tell me about who was the musical guest on Letterman I know exactly what time they went to bed, more than 3 hours later than I did!
I think that during the holidays, sleep is even more important - too much excitement and not enough sleep is a sure recipe for emotional breakdowns!
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