Controlled Chaos: Bedtime Passes

To get back into the school rountine (and to keep a certain 8 year old and 5 year, both of whom shall remain nameless, IN BED) I made the kids some "bedtime passes". The kids have an hour each night before bed to settle down... to get their pjs on, to brush their teeth, have a vitamin, get a drink and to get any little last minute random things done so that they are actually IN BED at bedtime. This has been a smallish problem for us lately.. someone NEEDS to tell me something three times, someone forgot their allergy pill, someone might have heard another someone get out of bed, etc... you get the picture. So, along with getting back into school bedtime routines, I wanted to curb this smallish problem and came up with the idea of the bedtime pass!

Each child has their very own pass. Its good for ONE use per night. That means the kids can get out of bed one free time and thats it (and they must hand over the pass). I like this because they have to really think about getting up... if this "problem" is big enough to waste their one chance on. Of course, this does not apply to emergencies. We've been using the passes for about a week and its worked wonders! The passes have been used a few times, but not all of the kids have used them. They are all very excited to have their passes as well and ask for them as bedtime nears each night! They turn them in to me in the morning if they werent used the night before. Cool concept, me thinks!