Nojomo1: Bedtime Picture Schedule

With M going into his own bed and room soon, I have decided to employ one of the tactics we use in preschool: I’m making him a picture schedule! Sometime soon I will take pictures of him doing/pretending-convincingly-to-do the various steps of our new and improved bedtime routine, and will make them into a visual reminder for him of what goes on each night.

The first picture will be of M brushing his teeth, and the caption underneath, which I will read with him repeatedly as we get used to the schedule, will say, "I brush my teeth."

The next picture will be of M getting into or wearing comfy jammies, and the caption will say, "I put on my pajamas."

The next will be a picture of two bedtime books, and will say, "We read two books."

The next is a "maybe"… I’m not sure if there are too many steps… but it would be me giving him a kiss, and it would say, "I get a hug and a kiss."

Next will be a picture of M’s little boombox (I am also thinking of putting a smiley-face sticker on the play button and beginning to teach him that that’s what to press if the music stops, because the kid has some staying power, and is often awake long after any of our nighttime CDs has ended!) The caption will say, "We put on the bedtime music."

Next will be a picture of me waving goodnight from the bedroom door, and will say, "Mommy says goodnight and leaves the room." (This one will be where things begin to vary significantly from what we’ve done for the past two years!)

The next will be a picture of M doing the "shhh" gesture in bed, and will say, "I am quiet in my bed."

The last will be M sleeping, and the caption will say, "I fall asleep on my own."

We’ll see. I hope it works! I have spent SO many hours in bed with this kid, and I already work ten-hour shifts with hour-ish commutes for the both of us on each end… the day is short, and I have NO time to do things like everyday chores except on the weekends, let alone time to recharge or spend any time on my own. Letting bedtime become a shorter "us" routine and putting some of the "responsibility" on him will honestly free up two hours a night for me. And, while I sometimes feel like he needs this time with me, the laying around and cuddling, half the time I’m annoyed and being grumpy. Plus, realistically, we are very connected throughout the day. My focus is on him during both commutes since we ride the bus and train, and I work at his school. While it is not "just us" throughout the day, we see each other and do spend time together. (Ugh, man, I wish I could just stay home and be with him all the time… but that guilt doesn’t make it right or healthy to sleep in the same bed forever, lol.)

Gosh, that last paragraph went all rambly.

Anyway, another cool thing about picture schedules is that they’re great for developing pre-literacy skills like left-to-right orientation (as long as you sequence the pictures that way, of course!) and familiarity with the connection between printed words (the captions) and ideas (the pictures).