I have a 3rd and 6th grader. My goal is lights out by 8:30pm for both of them this week. My 3rd grader I’ll probably pull up to 8pm as he gets tired from school, and my 6th grader I’ll let her decide when to turn her light off as we go (I’d suggest by 9pm to her).

They are both up by 6:30am.

My ES kids have lights out between 9-9:30 (usually having been reading for about 20-30 min before the lights out) and wake up on their own well-rested at 7:45 for an 8:30 out-the-door time. Works perfectly for us. I can't even fathom a 7 or 7:30 bedtime. But again, we have a nice late start to our ES.

9pm for the 7am wake up. DD is starting 3rd grade.

Summer was pushing ten pm, so we are trying to get back to 9. I mean summer sunsets when you are young ! Can’t give that up. We managed the 7am wake up ok. 8 am wake ups during summer for camp.

We used to have a strict-ish 7:30 bed time, but then the older kids got into travel sports and that's juts not realistic with practices ending at 730 on some evenings. Now it's roughly between 8:30 and 9:30 (preferably before 9, but that does not always happen) on weekdays.

Mine sleeps 9 pm to 7 or 7:30 am. Seems to work great.

5th grade. My goal is to have her sleeping by 10pm.

Too late. She dances til 9:00. 6th grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What time do you expect your child to wake?

Bedtime is only half the equation.

+ 1

Pre-sleep rituals are also important.

Yes and no. People can get too reliant on a very specific and consistent routine, and the kids turns into a disaster when everything isn't perfectly in place. Gotta instill some resilience in kids too.

+1. Don’t become a slave to the routine. You will end up with kids and parents who have trouble with 2 hour time differences and who waste half their vacation jet lagged because they can’t deal with one night of 6 hours of sleep.

Slave to routine is different from going to bed at a reasonable time leading up to the first day of school.

you cant win this argument

I am working on creating a more structured evening/morning routine for my kids this year (we've never held to rigid routines which is good and bad).

My 7 year old is going to have bath/brush teeth/pj's around 6:30-7:00 and then reading/quiet time 7:00/7:15 with lights out at 7:45.

10 year old has some evening activities and doesn't get home until 6:45 twice a week and 7:45 another day and so he is allowed to have quiet time in his room until 8:30/8:45.

Fridays/Saturdays I will allow them to stay up later and sleep in on weekends if they want.

My kids wake-up at 6:15/6:30

2nd grader, just turned 7. In bed at 7:30, lights out at 8:00. One night per week it’s a half hour later due to sports. Wake up at 6:45-7:00. She’s a kid who wants a lot of sleep.