Getting creative Mommy style

When at home Miss C is a good napper. We put her down, she might play for a few minutes, and then she puts herself to sleep. We aren't quite and don't tiptoe around the house when she's asleep. And, she sleeps.

Daycare is a totally different experience. She naps, sometimes. And when she does it's often not for very long. I think it has to do with a couple of things. The first being she wants to be involved in everything and there's a lot more going on in her toddler room than there is at home. She wants to know what everyone is doing and be a part of it.

The other is that she's learned very quickly that if she is disruptive she gets individual attention. The teachers work to keep her quite so the other kids can sleep. They hold and rock her trying to get her to sleep. Basically, she's working them for all it's worth. Which on one hand is hilarious but on the other, having a tired cranky child in the evenings is not pleasant.

So, I created "Miss C's Nap Calendar" with special stickers. The stickers are really just colored dots I had left over from some past yard sale. We hung the calendar on the back of her door at her height. Each day she gets a sheet from school that says whether she napped or not. If she naps, she gets to put a sticker on the calendar. If she doesn't, no sticker. We talk up those stickers and napping like they are the most important things in the world because to a toddler, they sorta are.

I'll let you know how it goes. We are two days in and have two stickers.