How to Use a Bedtime Chart Sucessfully

Is your house filled with yelling and screaming and fighting every night at bedtime? Download this chart and start your family toward peaceful bedtimes.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Word Bedtime chart
• stickers
• consistency
• timer - stove timer works

1. 
    
   only a sample use your imagination

   Use a bedtime chart and stickers. A sample is provided here. I made mine from a calendar in Word. List the steps your child takes to prepare for bed. Include all steps i.e. 5 min reminder, pick up toys, bath, PJ's, teeth, story, X's & O's, drink, in bed. Include the amount of time each should take.

2. 
    

   Decide what time your child will ideally be in bed. Write that time next to the box at the bottom of the chart. For example 8pm for "in Bed". If a drink takes 5 minutes, write 7:55 beside the square that says "drink". 7:50 beside the square for "kisses and hugs" etc, until you are at the 5 min reminder.

3. 
    

   Now you know what time each night to start the process. Before the first night, have a meeting with all children who have a chart. Don't do this at bedtime. Morning or afternoon is better. Explain the chart to them, tell them the process will start with a five minute reminder. Go over everything that will be expected. Not all children will have the same requirements. Explain that cheerful compliance will receive a sticker on the chart. Have plenty of time for questions so the time table isn't thwarted by confusion. If you decide to reward stickers at the end of the week, explain the reward system.

4. 
    

   Set a timer for the reminder time each night of the first week so you remember to give the 5 min reminder. Interrupt the child's activity with a reminder that they have five minutes to finish up. The child who complies without complaint receives a sticker to place on the chart. Any complaint results in parent silently taking the child by the hand, leaving any activity they were involved in. They walk to the chart and read the reminder time and then to the clock and note the time. Parent says. "The chart says this is the end of the reminder. To get a sticker for this, requires that you do this without complaining. You still can receive a sticker if you pick up your game in the 15 minutes the chart allows without complaining." Set the timer for 15 minutes and begin the next task. No discussion will be tolerated. In this manner walk the children through the first night giving stickers only if there is no complaint.

5. Start each new task as if all has gone according to plan; even if tantrums have accompanied each step. Write on your own calendar, the number of tantrums, the number of stickers, and the amount of time (beyond the scheduled time) it took to get the child into bed. At the end of the first week, evaluate the week from the beginning. Don't rely on your memory. You will tell by the numbers if you want to continue. Don't lose heart, consistency...consistency...consistency pays off.

Tips & Warnings

• No begging, no yelling, the timer is the last word, move on to the next task quickly.
• Under 3 years old needs more immediate gratification. maybe something they will get to sleep with.
• I give a 5 minute reminder at the end of bath time.
• I give the last "in bed" sticker the next morning if they stayed in bed and didn't get out again.
• I give TV time per sticker. 1 sticker = 5 minutes TV time.
• The first week is HARD. My children were motivated by the consistency and by knowing that those who complied did indeed get TV time and those who didn't comply didn't.
• In two weeks, the brutal consistency of NO yelling by me at all and a million trips to the clock and chart, my children were self administering the chart when I gave the 5 min reminder. It was so worth the feeling that I would die trying to start it.