Cutting Out Afternoon Nap

[Joyce]

When do toddlers give up their afternoon nap?

My daughter will be starting K1 next August but unfortunately, the school has offered her the pm session. She will be 3 year and 3 months then. She has a great routine going at the moment but her nap is bang in the middle of her school time. How do I go about tweaking her routine so that she won't be cranky? I'm not keen on putting her to bed later (she is in bed by 8pm now). We're on the waiting list for the am session though I've been told its a long waiting list.

 

[Valencia]

Have you written a letter asking for am session yet? Some schools like your asking when you're on waiting list, then they'll give you priority. My daughter applied for K3 for Sept 06, I stated my wish for am session at the very beginning, and they approved her for K2 for Feb 06, since K3 has only pm places.

 

[Joyce]

Yes, we are on the waiting list for am class but the school said that the chances of changing were remote (I presume there is not much movement from am to pm classes).

 

[scr]

What time is your daughter's school going to be ? what time does she wake up in the morning and how long is her nap ? what would be the best time to make her nap time - before or after school ?
There is still some time to go before she starts school. It's difficult to say when kids give up naps as each child is different. My son is 3y 9m, gave up his nap about 6 months ago. His classmates all more than 3 y, some still take a nap, some don't. When my son started school last september he used to take his nap. I had no choice too and had to enrol him in pm classes. a month or two before he started school, i started pushing his nap time later and later. i couldn't make it earlier, his routine was such. For nearly 6-8 months after he started school he would come home at 4:15pm and then take his nap he was just too tired. But late naptimes meant even later bedtimes so it was quite hard on us rather than him. Then he just gave up his naps altogether and started sleeping early at night and I do prefer it this way.

Other parents I spoke to had their kids sleeping about an hour before going to school. They could do it because their kids were very early risers. my son is not so I couldn't make him take his nap before school.
hope this helped