Daylight savings- although welcome, can be stressful for children and parents. We know children thrive on routine, and when that is suddenly adjusted by an hour it can cause a lot of tears. Here’s our top 3 tips for making daylight savings time less stressful for any children who thrive on their schedule.
1) Prime your children.
Letting your little ones know what’s going on is always great for their developing minds. Letting them be aware of their world makes them feel like they have more control of their environment. No concept is too big to explain to children. Tell them simply
“Everyone changes their clocks twice a year! We call it daylight savings time. And guess what? That day is coming up soon on March 10th!”
2) Use the teachable moments.
If you can use daylight savings as a time to talk more about clocks, and time telling. This is a great time of year to see if your children are more interested in learning about clocks. It’s a great teaching tool for math and science! You can also ‘celebrate’ the day by buying toy clocks like this.
3) Start making the change early.
As much as we can involve our children in the process of daylight savings the better. But at some point we need to make the hour transition more manageable for their sensitive bodies. If you can take the week or even two weeks before, start adjusting their schedule. Try starting with the major change of going to bed later. If you can push bedtime back in 15 minute chunks, that hour change won’t feel so tremendous. So for example- if bedtime is usually at 7pm, move it to 7:15pm for a few days. Then move it to 7:30, and then 7:45. So when daylight savings happens, your children will already be prepared for the shift in bedtime.