To make sure that your preschool –aged child gets a proper night’s sleep, an adequate bedtime routine is essential.

It is very comforting for a child to have a certain routine or a schedule. Makes them feel secured and bedtime is no exception. Allotting a bedtime routine gives your child a time to unwind from the entire day activenesses and more likely to follow your instruction with out a fight.

It is not an easy task to get a child in bed; it can be the most difficult and tiring job at times. Mary Poppins made it look really easy. But the truth is there is not concrete answer to this problem. It not a certainty that a same routine will work on all the kids as each may respond in a different way. The goal I set was to share with you the secret of our family bed time routine which has worked wonders with our twin two-year-old boys.

Many parents start off their kids’ bedtime routine with a bath. Kids, especially boys are never into taking baths; however, it is a good indication for your kid that the fun time is over and now its time for bed. I personally start off at least an hour earlier before its time to put the kids in bed.

I ask my kids to go to their room an hour before their bed time. There they change into their pajamas and brush their teeth. After that we sit down and read stories books together as a nightly ritual. I allow my twins to each pick a book of their choice. At times I read to them or at others they take turns to read to me. Often we do the reading together.

The make it more fun for the kids is to have them hear the tapped version of the stories. A number of great books for the preschool-aged children are on tape. Many are published by Scholastic.

It usually happens that our kids don’t want to sleep after the stories. For that we allow then to play with their video games for 15 minutes or so. This is so that they can use up the last bit of their energy and be ready for bed. Even before we ask them to stop their games they say that they are sleepy.

One of the twins falls asleep the min his head touches the pillow. The other one on the other hand poses difficulty falling asleep. We allow them to take few toys to bed with them and they play with them. Sometimes talks to themselves and finally fall asleep.

It is not an easy task to have a bedtime routine even for the parents. It takes a great commitment on your part as well. To get the kids ready for bed each night is not an easy task. You have to form a routine of your own of reading books and spending your time sitting with the kids to talking to them until they fall asleep. Yes it can be time consuming, but it can also prove to be the best time of the day for you. if the kid enjoys the time then he will find it easier and relaxing to go to sleep.