To nap or not to nap..

So how old until you stop letting kids nap? 3?

I have a 3 yr old right now and he still sleeps a solid 2 hours. I intend to continue to nap him until we hit the summer. At that time I'll have my kids home from school too, so he can hang out with them as they do quiet activities. Quiet crafting, quiet movie, quiet book reading.

Even if I didn't have kids of my own to distract him during quiet time I'd still leave him in his bed for 2 hours, but I'd bring out the quiet box. Filled with quiet books and quiet things to do and look at.

nap time is mandatory for my sanity to stay in tact.

3?? If you want a tired cranky kid and if you want to feel the same way. :p EVERYONE here has a quiet time. Usually that means sleeping. At around 4 that sometimes becomes more difficult and after a period of about 45 minutes of quiet lying down with eyes closed they are unable to sleep, they get some books/quiet activities to do while on their mat finishing the complete nap time. But that 45 minutes has to be a real effort to sleep. Otherwise the clock starts over. These little guys are learning so much and growing and developing so fast that their bodies need the rest!

Thanks. I knew I wasn't crazy. A mom says her dcb doesn't nap any more. Today he would he kept telling me he had to pee. So he kept getting up.

A lot of providers have the motto "if you have out grown your nap you have out grown my daycare". Everyone in my daycare has quiet time including my own 5 and 8 yr old when they are home from school. I would send the child to pee before nap and then tell him not to get up until you come back. I only have One that is not in a playpen but on a nap mat instead and he has been with me long enough to know that he is not to get up till I say it's time.

My 3 year old dd refuses her nap. But she has to stay quietly in her bed for at least an hour. She'll read quietly or talk to herself, but I'm always impressed that she does stay in there even if she doesn't fall asleep.

I'm like the others. Everyone must have a quiet time. Even my son who is almost 5 has to rest when he is home. Most of the time he doesn't sleep and gets up after 45min-an hour, but sometimes he does nap and I know it's because he needs it. I really dislike it when parents think their kids have outgrown their nap and stop giving them naps at home...makes it much harder to keep them in routine at daycare.

My 5 year old has rest time at school, so if a parent thinks that at 3 they are done with naps altogether, I don't think so ;)

Everyone naps as long as they are at daycare. Whether they sleep or not is up to them but they must lay quietly till I tell them otherwise. I will get older kids up after an hour or so some days.

How do you get them to rest quietly?! I have a 4 year old that will try anything to not sleep. He is tired since he is cranky and not listening when he doesn't sleep. (Rarely sleeps) gets up to pee many times I tell him he has to close his eyes but he doesn't do it. Suggestions?

all my daycare kids nap, even if they don't sleep they rest. Everyone needs some downtime, even the kiddos, it is important for their development to get the proper rest.

"Napping" lasts until at least 3, or until the child can't/won't fall asleep anymore.
But everyone has a quiet time. Usually, I will put the babies down first. This gives the bigger kids time for lunch to settle, and they can do something that isn't allowed out with the littlest ones roaming. (Right now, the Barbie dress up is a big hit. Those tiny shoes just cannot come out with the one year olds around!!)
Then I get them to lay down on the couch or whatever. Lights out, curtains closed. We have recently taken to putting on a Dora video or some such thing. I don't mind, as it is the only time we have the TV on.

All children lay down in the dark for 2 hours at my daycare also. Even my 5 1/2 year old grandson who spends a day with us now and then for PD days brings his DS and lays down on his bed in the dark and plays with that with the sound off until his eyes are tiredn and then he sleeps for the last hour at least.

Crayola knows the famous motto! :laugh: It's the law here too.