My son started Kindergarten this year. He was supposed to start in 2021, but due to the pandemic, it delayed his start. We were living in the U.S. when the pandemic started and it delayed a long awaited move to Canada, which, in turn, delayed his start in school (Kindergarten starts at age 4 in Ontario, where we were moving to).
Like many kids his age, he has lived a large portion of his young life in a pandemic setting. As a result, it’s affected his ability to develop social skills. Daycare was never an option pre-pandemic (primarily due to cost). To encourage social skills, we tried other avenues to encourage the development of those much needed social skills. This included visiting playgrounds, indoor play areas, storytimes at a local children’s bookstore, and so on. Initially, there was hesitency from my son (largely due to noise levels and various other factors), but he finally started getting comfortable in social settings and started interacting with others. Then the pandemic hit and the momentum was lost.
Fast forward to 2022 and we were finally able to moved. Due to circumstances beyond our control, his school start date was delayed. Once he was enrolled, his anxiety went through the roof. For well over a month, he would wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes, it was multiple times. It usually involved tears and him asking me stay in his room for the rest of the night. It wasn’t long before it was having an impact on the mental health of all parties involved due to a lack of sleep on both sides. Oncce the weather started turning warmer, it was decided to drive to school in the morning, but walk home in the afternoon to burn off some nervous energy and get some extra time in the sun. There’s a playground between the school and home that we included as a pitstop on the way home. Within two weeks, the middle of the night wake up calls started to dwindle. The meltdowns in the morning (both at home and at the school) started to slowly decrease. There’s still hesitency to go (due to separation anxiety), but at least we’ve found a way to ease things.
Within a few weeks of spending that extra time outside, I came across some info that confirmed my suspicions as to why it may be successful. Spending time outside increases your serotonin levels, which, in turn, helps with stabilizing mood and sleep. There are still some rough nights, but they’ve decreased substantially since we’ve been spending extra time outside.
What are some of your favourite ways to help promote healthy, regular sleep patterns?
Island of Misfit Mamas 