Layth's Bedtime Routine

Layth loves Dr Seuss books. His first book was Cat in the Hat which we bought after he liked the movie so much. But the language is a bit high level for his stage at the moment.

We borrow books from the library but I thought that I'd buy him a number of books so that he can read them consistently as library books need to be returned. That way I can monitor progress if there is any.

So I bought him 3 more Dr Seuss books with age appropriate language. We've been reading them every night before bed and he loves them. I point to the words instead of the pictures so he knows I'm reading from the writing. Some things I observed:
- he's starting to remember the story and the plot
- he can guess what's coming next
- since he's familiar with the plot, he adds his own "story" with his own words to describe the pictures
- he can read (i.e. recognise) three words from the book now: dog, big and little
- one of the books teach numeracy so he gets practice counting the apples in the story too (which increases in each page).

What I like about Dr Seuss's books are:
1. Colourful and wacky illustrations and characters
2. Brilliant rhymes!! (Rhyming is good for language development)
3. Simple words... and amusing for adults to read too
4. Repetition of words
5. Lots of levels to choose from - from 3-12 year old, you can tell by the size of the font hehehe

We still borrow books from the library to keep things in variety. Layth prefers illustrated/photo encyclopaedias rather than the childrens' books. Huhu. He's not interested in dancing elephants, shrinking boys or zoo animals. He wants his trucks, train, plane, machines encyclopaedias! Hahaha.

Reading books is part of Layth's bedtime routine. From what I've read and asked professionals here- apparently having a routine is good for little kids as they thrive on routines. They say it promotes stability and confidence in a child because he/she will know what's coming next. Plus it will be easier to gain their cooperation to do stuff. I decided to test this out.

Layth always sleeps when we sleep; which could be as late as 11pm. Even then it's pretty difficult to make him sleep that sometimes I fall asleep before he does! Then I started a proper bedtime routine which I repeated the same order every night. Usually before sleeping we just read 3 Qul +Ayat Kursi and then tidur lah. Now what we do is:

• Say "Jom tidur"
• Change into pajamas
• Kencing
• Brush teeth
• Read books (2 or 3 - his choice)
• Sing some of his favourite songs
• Calm conversation about the day
• Tuck him into his bed
• Read 3 Qul and Ayat Kursi
• Read du'a before sleeping
• Say Good night and Assalamualaikum
• Then let him fall asleep on his own

MashaAllah it works! He's been sleeping early now (well, 9pm is still late but can't start the routine until after Maghrib) and even wakes up early hahaha. No more dramas to get him to go to bed. Now when i say "Jom tidur" he automatically knows what to do next. Last night he even went and brushed his teeth by himself!

Let's just hope I will istiqamah to keep with the routine. I've let hubby do it tonight because Layth is starting to associate reading with me. He doesnt want Baba to read with him..oh no!