Naptimes

How to get a chld who obvisously needs a nap to take on.

This problem usually starts with the onset of Person Permanance/Object Permanence. They will lose the battle at that young age, but the desire is still there. They know you are out there and you are doing something that they are missing and they don't want to miss it. There are a variety of methods that parents have tried to address this. I will list a few here.
1. Take a nap with the child.
2. Require resting but not naping
3. Make it a quiet time with a few limited choices such as a book and soft stuffed animals, soft music, unhook the phone so it will not ring, etc.
4. Lead up to the rest time by letting the child know what will be happening. "After lunch you have your rest time while I will be sitting in the living room waiting until you wake up." Don't say you will be with another child while they are resting or they really feel they are missing something.
5. Some children do better with a mid-morning nap rather than an afternoon nap.
6. Nap time should not wait until the child is exhausted and the time should be fairly consistent from day to day (it can't be at 12:30 one day and 3 the next).
7. Nap time is a type of self soothing. Have the child "practice resting."

One week many years ago in my two and three year old preschool classroom we decided to do a unit on "Nighttime" We put dark construction paper on the windows with small holes in them for light to shine through (like stars), children brought their favorite stuffed animal to school (that they usually liked to sleep with), we had a bunch of activities that revolved around what night is like. We also brought in a large size foam mattress and put it near the pretend play area. While the lights were on the children thought it was a place to jump and play, but once we turned out the lights and told them it was a place to "pretend to sleep" we ended up with on average 3 - 5 kids resting (sleeping) for anywhere from 10 - 40 minutes. They would look to see if there was room and if there wasn't they would wait until there was. Weeks later I was geting requests from kids for the pretend resting place again.