The Naptime Book. Cynthia MacGregor

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       The

       Naptime

       Book

      CYNTHIA MacGREGOR

      CONARI PRESS

      First published in 2003 by

      Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

      York Beach, ME

      With offices at:

      368 Congress Street

      Boston, MA 02210

      www.redwheelweiser.com

      Copyright © 2003 Cynthia MacGregor

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

       Cataloging-in-Publication Dataavailable upon request from the Library of Congress

      Typeset in New Baskerville by Maxine Ressler

      Cover and interior illustrations by Gary Phillips

      Printed in Canada TCP

      10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03

      8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

       For Laurel…always

       Contents

       Acknowledgments

       Introduction: Even Without the Closet Monster

       Relaxing Story Activities

       Games and Activities that Promote Relaxation

       Silly, Soothing Poems

       Lull-a-Boy (or Girl): Lullabyes and Other Naptime Ditties

       Travels to the Lands of Imagination and Conceptualization

       Time Out for Mom Too!

       Acknowledgments

      Thanks to (alphabetically): Cynthia S. Potts,

      Leslie Rossman, John Wasukanis, Tiff Wimberly

      Introduction: Even Without the Closet Monster

      Bedtimes and naptimes. They share so much and yet in ways they are dissimilar, too. In both cases, you are trying to get a child to go to sleep—primarily because the child needs to rest and secondarily because (let's be honest), you need a break too! When your child is down for a nap, you can catch a nap yourself—or at least catch your breath, maybe get tonight's dinner started, or “pick up” the living room so it no longer looks like it was visited by a deranged tornado. (See the chapter, “Time Out for Mom, Too!” for a little more on the subject of making good use for yourself of your child's naptime.)

      Kids resist going to bed at night for many reasons. Fear of the dark—and of the imagined bugaboos that await in that darkness—is a prime one. On the other hand, very few kids fear naptime because of “the closet monster” or “what's under the bed”; in daylight, these kinds of terrors recede. Another reason that lurks behind resistance to going to bed at night is fear of having a nightmare, but very few kids have nightmares during naps.

      Yet, even without being concerned over closet monsters and nightmares, many kids resist going to bed for a nap just the same.

      Why is that?

      One big reason—and it's an operative in avoiding nighttime bedtime too—is the fear of missing something. What are you going to be doing while your child is asleep? What's going to be happening in the house and in the world out there that he's not going to be aware of while he sleeps? You may say, “I'm just going to be resting, myself,” or “I'll only be in the kitchen, starting dinner,” but that's scant reassurance to an active four-year-old for whom every audible fire siren and every squirrel on the tree branch outside the window is an adventure. Even the prospect that Barney or Blue's Clues might come on the TV while he sleeps—and misses it—is devastating.

      You can't in clear conscience promise him unconditionally that nothing exciting will transpire while he's napping. You don't know what neighborhood excitement will erupt, what friend will ring the doorbell, or what else might occur during that time.

      The best you can do is make lying down for a nap seem appealing and pave the way for him to relax and rest. And that's basically what this book is about.

      Studies state that sleep is important for all of us but especially for kids. The average preschooler needs nine hours of sleep a night, as well as a nap during the day. And I surely don't have to explain that a nap is as important to his disposition as it is to his health! What parent hasn't had to deal with a cranky child who's out of sorts or out of control due to missing a nap or having a nap curtailed?

      The aim of this book is to offer you ways to make naptime easier. It's a two-pronged plan: You need to induce your child into getting on her bed in preparation for a nap; and you need to get her to relax once she's there, so she can fall asleep.

      In this introduction I'll discuss ways to ease the naptime struggle. Then I'll suggest some activities that you can engage in with your child in or on the bed. These activities have a dual purpose:

      1 The prospect of participating in them can help lure your child to his bed.

      2 The activities themselves are soothing and/or engaging. They will help relax the child and/or take his attention away from anything that might be troubling him, from a concern about missing something while he sleeps to an even more pressing worry such as an imminent trip to the dentist, or the approach of his first day in kindergarten or pre-school or daycare.

      

Besides being concerned that they'll miss something, other reasons kids resist naps are because they want to be “a big kid” and because they simply don't realize they're tired. Kids aren't as attuned to their body signals as adults are. If you're at the end of your rope, if simple tasks are defeating you, everyone is annoying you, and you're just about out of patience, chances are it's because you're overtired and chances are you know it. But the three- or four-year-old who's cranky or racing around the house out of control is probably also overtired but almost certainly doesn't recognize it.

      Fortunately you do. If your son or daughter is showing every sign of being overtired, you, at least, know what the matter is—and what the solution is. After he has his nap, things will get better.

      You can help your cause along by taking the following steps:

      1 Try to put him in for his nap at the same time every day. It helps to establish a routine. If your child knows naptime isn't “negotiable,” he'll be less likely to try to fight it. If 1:00 or 2:00 or just after lunch is naptime every day, your child will know that it's naptime and he's expected to go inside and lie down and close his eyes. Making one of the activities