adjusting to PM session

[Aava.Wong]

my son has been enrolled for PM session playgroup from september as i couldn't get him in the AM session.

the problem is that he has lunch by noon and naps from 1pm till 4pm. his PM session is from 2.30pm to 4.30pm. my husband has been telling me to cancel his classes because he's concerned that our son would want to nap instead of getting excited to learn!

well, i need some help here - should i go and cancel his PM sessions or should i "try" adjusting his nap time? if you pick the latter option then please comment on how you managed to get your child adjusted to PM sessions.

cheers!

[nicolejoy]

How old is he?

My daughter was 2 when she started afternoon nursery. Prior to that, she would nap from about 1-3pm and school was 2-4. Initially I tried to move her nap earlier to 12 noon, but she wouldn't go to sleep until 1 then I'd have to wake her after only half an hour. There was much kicking and screaming involved as well.

It got to the point where she would only end up sleeping maybe one or two days a week so I stopped putting her down for a nap when she was just past 2.

Since she stopped napping, she sleeps a lot better at night. She goes to sleep earlier and will sleep a full 12 hours. Her friends who do still nap for say 2 hours only sleep 10 hours at night. I think the important thing is how much sleep they get in a 24 hour period rather than WHEN they sleep...

I do find that if we have a particularly busy day, she does get quite tired in the afternoon. IF she naps now, she naps AFTER school around 4:30pm. And IF she naps, I have to move her bedtime back otherwise she won't sleep. Generally if she naps for an hour, I put her to bed an hour later.

The best way to move a nap earlier is to start waking them up earlier in the morning so that there is the same amount of time between waking up and going down for a nap - just both are a little earlier. It's hard for them to learn to sleep an hour earlier just because that suits YOUR schedule.

And if you DO need to drop the nap entirely, it's not so bad... I dreaded dropping the nap but now that she doesn't nap anymore, I see big benefits in that our day time is much more flexible.

Hope that helps!!

[lesliefu]

your kid might end up dropping the nap and sleeping earlier - like my daughter did....had the same worries as you, but it turned out she was completely fine! wouldn't worry too much...normally my daughter takes a 15min nap after school and that keeps her energized until 8pm - which for some is already a late sleeping time! :) she'll be fine!

[Aava.Wong]

thanks for your replies!

it'll be hard not to let him nap as he loves his nap/sleep. even if he naps 4 hours a day, he still can sleep 12 hours at night. we never forced him to get on with a schedule but he managed to put himself into it.

we'll try feeding him lunch at 10am and see if he manages to nap by 11am. fingers crossed!!

[lesliefu]

yeah - i had my daughter have lunch at 11am and then nap at 12noon (her class started at 1pm) so I drove her around for 45mins to get her to sleep - at the beginning she would and after about a week or two, she would just listen to the music and not sleep..then i stopped trying...hope all goes well with your son! :)