You may be letting them have too much play time/exercise before bed making it harder to wind down. I’d switch up your schedule as so:

5pm: pre-dinner snack then back to playing

6:30pm: dinner

7:00pm: bath

7:15pm: stories and song

7:30pm: lights out


The above let’s them wind down while eating (sitting still, not playing etc) then straight up to bath, PJs, and bedtime routine.

Agree w put them to bed earlier and make the bedtime routine shorter
Dinner 5:30
Bath 6
Brush teeth, go potty, put on pjs 6:20
Read books 6:30
Lights out 7 (for 2 year old) and by 7:30 (for 4 year old)

If you need to separate them in order to stagger bedtime, do it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No crying, whining, threatening, pleading, bribing, yelling, etc. just stay somewhere (might be right outside the door at first) and deadpan say “it’s time for bed” each time they come out. Grab them by the hand/wrist and firmly put them back in bed. They get no reaction from you, no emotion. Just put back in bed. Will take a few nights but worth a shot. Worked for us.

This. Bore them to sleep.

Your routine is too long, it sounds exhausting. Shorten bath and books and put them to bed earlier, before they can get themselves all wound up.

LOL that is the most generic bedtime in the universe.