September 2021 www.womanthismonth.com 56 LIFESTYLE | opinion GET ENOUGH SLEEP! Ouiam El Hassani tells us the 7 steps to forming great sleeping habits in kids. For many families, summer is a season when rules relax, and bedtimes get pushed back a little later than usual. However, with school restarting shortly, weekday mornings are about to start a lot earlier for many kids, and parents might be wondering how to reset the clock on bedtimes. The worst thing you can do is leave it to the last minute and hope your child will have a great first day at school… chances are this will not work! Having enough sleep is essential for anyone to function well during the day; however, many kids don't know enough about sleep and might even perceive it as a great big timeout where they're missing out on things. Hence the importance of having conversations about sleep with your kids to get them up to speed. Before you start the conversation, make sure it is during a time when they are attentive and open to conversation, not tired or cranky. You also need to consider the following points: 1- Be Positive About Sleep Make sure that younger children, especially, understand that sleep is a positive thing, and don't use the threat of bedtime as a punishment. Talk to your kids about how a lack of sleep can impact one's mood, health, and academic ability. Just as we teach our kids about the importance of eating healthy, we should teach them about the importance of sleeping healthy from an early age. 2- Empower Your Children with Choices It's important to empower children with choices around bedtime because the one thing they can't have a choice in is the fact that they do need to go to sleep. They will be more accountable, more responsible, and hopefully, develop good sleep habits early in life if we empower them through simple choices. So maybe you can ask them which pajamas they would like to wear, what book they would like to read before bed etc.
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