When do naps disappear?

Okay, I am dreading when naps disappear as the break in the day is much needed. My twins just turned 3 in January. They typically take a good 2-3 hour afternoon nap, but lately it seems that there are days that they just talk and talk and fool around in their room, and it's so late when they actually fall asleep, that I need to wake them up by dinnertime so that they don't disrupt their nighttime sleep. I know some kids drop naps at 3, but I feel like it's early. My kids are little monsters by dinnertime when they don't nap, plus they do not got to sleep for the night any earlier - still around 8/8;30. When did your kids stop napping and did you transition to quiet time? How did that work? currently the kids are in one room, and I've tried to have them read in their beds, etc as quiet time, but basically lasts like 30 minutes and then they are ready to get out.

Thoughts???

 

Shhhhhhhh......don't eve ask that question! My boys are five and my daughter 3 1/2. The boys are in half day prek at naptime. But when no school? They nap!! And my daughter still does too. I'm a bit more lenient though too as I know my boys are older. If I don't have anything to get done, I will let them stay up if invested in an activity of some sort. But the minute we get in a car? Out like lights!

 

At 4.5 my girls still nap 2-3 times a week. The other days they have quiet time in their room. They have books, teddies, coloring books/crayons and 2 or 3 small toys (cars, trains, animals, etc) in their room. We have a Gro Clock in their room set to change color an hour and a half after they start their quiet time. They know that they have to stay in their room, play quietly and not call for mom/dad (unless it's an emergency) until their clock changes color. We prep for quiet time following the same routine we've always used for before nap time, including turning on their white noise machine. Before I leave the room, I remind them that they can have a sleep if they're tired. Other than that I leave it up to them. It seems to work well. We do have to adjust bedtime based on whether they nap or not. On non nap days they're in their room at 7:00pm. On nap days they're in their room at 8:00pm.

 

My boys stopped napping well before they turned 3. Like around 32 months. I knew it was time to give up naps when if they DID nap, they didn't go to bed until 10pm or later. Now without naps they go to bed at 8pm still. Some days I think they probably still could nap, but I just put them to bed a bit earlier.

We tried quiet time for awhile, and it was more a disaster than anything. I ended up having to go into their room multiple times to break up fights or because they needed to come out to go potty, etc. It ended up being less stress just having them play in the living room. In some ways I wish we still had naps, but it's also nice not to have to plan our day around nap time.

 

I think like most developmental things, there's a huge range in what's normal. Sage is 21 months older than Trey, but he stopped napping before she did. She just needed more sleep. She was almost 5 and still took them a couple times/week. Now that I think of it, I used to take naps in kindergarten (German K). We all laid out mats and slept. Spencer will be 4 in May and hasn't taken a regular nap in about 6 months. He still falls asleep in the car though sometimes.

 

All my kids gave up naps between 2-2.5 yrs old. My oldest and my twins were all born in feb. So the summer after they turned 2 is when they gave up naps. My daughter was born in sept, it was the summer before she turned 3 that she gave them up. It's no coincidence it was summer time, that's the time of year we make our annual 2000mile road trip to visit my family in Canada, and while playing with their cousins they had no intention of stopping to take naps By the end of the 2 week visit they were doing without naps.

It was time though, because by that time bedtime was becoming a battle, and they were taking upwards of 90minutes to settle down and go to sleep. Once we cut out naps they started falling asleep much easier at nighttime.

My twins just turned 4 and they are starting to cut back their sleep again, getting up almost an hour earlier in the morning than they have been.

 

My daughter stopped napping every day around 4 1/2. She would nap maybe 2-3 times a week, but the other days were her quiet time and she liked that time to herself. My son didn't give up naps until this summer when we were trying to get him ready for Kindergarten, so he was about 5 1/2. I think he would still nap if he could, but they are in full day school so that option is out.

 

2 months after 3 here. They were still taking 3 hour naps though when they did and it totally messed up our evening.

Quiet time never worked here.

 

Before age two. And it should have been earlier. Bedtime was a nightmare with naps. Without naps they were both asleep shortly after 6 PM.

I am just now finally moving bedtime back a little (just turned 4). They just are not ready for bed at 6 PM anymore. I am feeling a bit sad. I love my evenings.

As for quiet time... I read to them for about 30 minutes after lunch. I also try to do a quiet hands on activity. Play dough, drawing, puzzles for a little bit. But they have to be supervised for it to be considered "quiet time". I enjoy the quiet time with them so it is not horrible. Plus I have the evenings to get what I need done.

 

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I know this will be a transition. I guess the struggle is that my kids are early risers - meaning 5:30am (6am if I'm lucky). Really its my son that gets up early (always has) and then wakes up my daughter and then we are all up for the day. so its tough for them to manage the entire day without a nap. If they skip a nap and we are in the car or they are on the couch hanging out, they fall asleep. And it's usually dinnertime and then everything gets pushed back in the night. Anyone have good strategies to keep kids in bed in the morning? right now, my kids share a room.

 

Buy a Gro Clock or use some other similar system (lamp on a timer) to indicate to them when they're allowed to get out of bed. It may not make them actually sleep longer but it keeps them from wreaking havoc too early.

 

Our pre-school does that too. Not all German pre-schools and kindergartens do that but quite a few do and I think it is great, it was actually one of the things high on our wish-list when choosing the pre-school. So at 3.5 they still nap on their full pre-school days, at home we do quiet time and they often fall asleep for their nap during quiet time. On average, they nap about 4-5 days a week.

Quiet time follows the same routine as naps did - we all snuggle together on the big bed, I read a story or two, we listen to some music, cuddle, they may look at a book or play quietly with their stuffed animals. If they do not fall asleep after 30 minutes or so we move downstairs and they do another quiet activity for 30 minutes (puzzles, colouring, books) and I have a mug of tea and read a bit (I am with them in the room but they know this is mom's break and are usually good about playing quietly on their own). I time quiet time by the music (you may get up when the music is over) and by my mug of tea. I adjust bedtime according to whether they napped or not by about 30 minutes.

 

Having no nap might push them to sleep longer. My kids slept 13 hours at night when we stopped naps.

 

Same here. LOVE LOVE LOVE not having naps so we could spend 4-5 hours in the Children's Discovery Museum!

 

My 4-year-olds still take a nap almost every afternoon. It's usually 2-2.5 hrs, occasionally shorter or longer.
They take forever to settle down at night though. I know that would probably improve if we dropped naps but I feel like all 3 of us still need naps!!