Above is one of our K1 friends playing "nap" (she was just pretending to sleep). :-)
Dear Parents,
It was wonderful meeting with you all during our Parent-Teacher Conferences today. As a K1 Team, we miss having you as volunteers in our classrooms. We hope that things will improve to a point where we can welcome parents back into our classroom and you can experience first-hand the joy found in our K1 programme.
Today's blog post focuses on the importance of a good sleep routine for young learners.
Is your child getting enough sleep?
One of the most important gifts you can give your child is a regular, consistent, and age-appropriate bedtime routine. Each child is different, but the recommended daily amount of sleep needed for the average 3-5 year old is 11-13 hours a day (including naps).We begin our day at UWCSEA K1 between 7:30 and 8:00am. I am guessing that your child must be waking up between 6:00 - 7:00am, depending on how close you live to the school. We do not include a nap in our K1 programme. With this in mind, your children should be asleep by roughly 8:00pm (at the latest) in order to ensure they have the sleep they need to feel their best for school. To have children asleep by 8:00pm, a bedtime routine may need to begin as early as 7:00pm.
A regular, consistent bedtime routine helps signal to the body that it is time for sleep. This might include an evening bath and a bedtime story (or two!). Tips for helping your child to fall asleep include:
- Have a relaxing bedtime routine that ends in the room where your child sleeps
- Your child's bedroom should be cool, quiet and dark, and with no "screen time" (ipad or TV) for at least half an hour prior to bed time
- Maintain a consistent sleep schedule -- same time, same routine, same place each night
Sleep is essential for learning. Sleep plays an important role in brain processing and memory consolidation. If you prevent people from sleeping after a learning task, their ability to learn is significantly impacted. Sleep is also the time when our brains take the information from the day, consolidate it, and turn it into memories. As children sleep, they reflect on their day and may come up with solutions to challenges and problems they faced the day prior.
Sleep impacts the way we process the day’s emotional information. When children are tired, they are more likely to remember negative experiences and forget positive ones. Short-term sleep loss can result in changes in behaviour -- children can become more irritable, impulsive, lack empathy, and fail to pick up on social cues from others. The ability to lay down memory, problem-solve and overall cognition can be reduced. It is important to note that an overtired child can present like a wide awake (and slightly out-of-control, hyper-energized, overstimulated) child.
As mentioned above, beginning a new learning programme can be exhausting for people of all ages, and the effect can be cumulative. We have been noticing that some children are feeling sleepy or emotional by the afternoons, and may be needing an afternoon nap. Please know that this is not unusual for the start of the school year in K1.
If you feel that your child would benefit from some additional sleep in the form of an afternoon nap, please feel free to pick up your child from school at 12:00pm. This option is available to you as part of our K1 programme as we understand the importance of sleep, and that all children and families need flexibility in order to ensure their child has the sleep routine that works for them at this important stage in their development.
Your child's classroom teacher will be in touch with you if they feel your child might benefit from our early pick-up option.
Thank you for your continuing support!
Thank you for your continuing support!
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