Can't Get Your School-Aged Kids to Stay in Bed at Night? - Try Math!

Do your school-aged kids drive you nuts at bedtime? Is your evening monopolized by kids who are arguing, complaining, playing, and giggling when they are supposed to be going to sleep? Perhaps you have just one school-aged child who gets up every few minutes to ask for yet another drink of water, another hug, or to tell you some random bit of information? Have you exhausted every method you can think of at night to get your kids to go to bed and stay in bed? Bedtime problems are one of the most common behavior issues reported by parents. If your school-aged kids are making you crazy because they won't stay put at bedtime, then consider implementing the following bedtime discipline tactic which has worked really well for our family.

If your children refuse to be quiet in bed, or if they will not stop repeatedly getting out of bed, set them up at the dining room table with a math sheet every time they make noise or get up. Obviously, this discipline tactic is only appropriate for kids who are school-aged, and who know how to do Math. But if your children meet those criteria, this tactic works great. Just go to math-drills.com, print out a worksheet at the child's math level (preferably something they don't love to do - I always give my son fractions, and my daughter subtraction.), and then tell them that if they want to be up, they'll be putting their brain to work.

Hand them the worksheet, tell them exactly how much of it must be done before they will be permitted to go back to bed, and walk away. If they begin to argue, consider informing them that if they complain about it, you will double the amount of math problems that must be done before they can leave the table. You may have to sit up an hour or so the first couple of times you try this with a kid who is really resistant to this type of tactic (but hey, you were going to be up that much longer fighting with them to get them to sleep, anyway).

Once you've done this once or twice, you will likely find that your school-aged children are much more willing to quiet down and stay in bed when they are reminded that they have a sheet of math waiting for them at the table if they don't. The thing I love most about this particular discipline tactic is that my children are getting in some extra math practice, while at the same time learning that they will have an unwanted consequence for not staying in bed. It works for us, as I currently only have to do this about once a month, and sometimes less frequently than that. And while it still frustrates me very much that my children still occasionally cause trouble at bedtime, at least now it is far, far less frequent than it was before I began using this method.

Using math as a bedtime discipline tactic may seem unusual, but it may help you have a more peaceful night in your home (and the extra math practice certainly isn't going to hurt your kids!). It has definitely worked for our family.