Reading in Bed

I've decided that I rather enjoy the peace in my home after the kids are in bed lately. We stumbled upon a rather effective solution to two different problems. 1.) The kids hate being forced to read, but read voraciously when allowed the time. This causes problems getting the 20 minutes of reading the kids need each day for school. I have had troubles in the past scheduling time for reading during the day. 2.) The kids struggle with falling asleep when they first climb into bed. This leads to arguments and major contention in my home.

One day we decided to move bedtime to a 1/2 hour earlier. The kids could take books to bed, keep the light on for 20-30 minutes. After that time, it is lights out. I don't remember how long ago this started, but it has been very effective. The kids need 20 minutes of reading each day for school. They have to track their reading minutes. By sending them to bed earlier, they feel like they get to stay up later if they read. Plus, they don't feel like it is homework when they get to read in bed.

We have noticed a few things about this process. These are general observations as I would be a liar if I said our kids were perfectly happy with this arrangement every single night.

1. The kids fight less at bedtime.
2. Bedtime is more peaceful.
3. The kids fall asleep quicker once the lights are turned out. Sometimes they are asleep even before lights are turned out.
4. The kids have become the police of their own time. They will either use a timer or watch the clock and they know when they need to turn the light off. We generally don't have to tell them anymore.
5. Any changes to this bedtime routine causes major distress and discord in our home.

As I said earlier, we do not exact this process with the greatest precision every night. Some can attest that bedtime at our house is crazy, awful, loud, and just outright disheartening. But we do the best we can and we have nights like tonight where everything went off without a hitch.

I found a website that talks about reading and the benefits of reading. It says that reading is more relaxing before bed than watching TV. I wholeheartedly agree. My kids have shown me that. I guess we're on the right track here.

Now the challenge for us is to keep up with this routine. We certainly see the benefits of reading, be it at bedtime or otherwise.