Bedtime Hack: Allow Reading to Help Children Sleep

1. All children have different needs

I have two kids who are polar opposites in every sense of the word.  One is shy and the other is outgoing.  One excels easily at school and the other struggles.  One goes to bed every night without incident, and the other is an absolute struggle.  For whatever reason, my daughter becomes distraught with the idea of going to bed.  After we say goodnight she is constantly out of her room or staying up playing with toys. We were desperate for an activity that would help her gradually fall asleep to eliminate the sleep anxiety.

2. Reading can help quiet the mind and promote sleep

She has recently taken up an interest in reading, so we dusted off an old Kindle and offered it to her as a bedtime activity.  She felt excited about her new treasure and felt very grown up reading from the Kindle.  It made the process fun for her, but also helped us to have a calmer bedtime routine without incident.

3. How to utilize local resources to obtain free reading material

After exploring some of the options on the Kindle store, we realized quickly that this new hobby could get quite costly. Especially when our daughter reads a chapter book in a couple nights.  We visited our local library and asked about their services.  We were excited to hear that the library offers free digital downloads for their books where readers can “check out” different options.  They utilize Overdrive which is a digital library for laptop or kindle download.  When downloads aren’t available, we can place books on hold which allows us to download at a later time.  It has been a fun experience looking through the options and discovering new authors.  During our last teacher conference, we noticed my daughters reading comprehension scores have also gone up.  Her new love for reading is beginning to help our routine at home, and help her with her learning at school.

3. Suggested reading for children ages 7-10

Some authors that we have found to be engaging for children in the young readers age range are below:

1. 1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Serious
   2. Smile Series
   3. Ms Krup Series
   4. Beverly Cleary Ramona Series
   5. Harry Potter Series
   6. Chronicles of Narnia
   7. Ivy and Bean
   8. Emily Windsnap
   9. Judy Blume
   10. Never Girls Collection

SOMETIMES IT HELPS TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX TO HELP MAKE DAILY LIFE MORE MANAGEABLE.