This blog post is written by guest contributor Stephanie Wise, Director of Digital and Interactive Media at The Jim Henson Company.

It’s September, and for those of us with children that means back to school. At my house, the summer time means that we are a little more lax when it comes to my girls' bedtime, as well as when they get up in the morning. Even though in reality they only stayed up about thirty minutes (ok, sometimes a full hour!) later than usual, when you are eight and five, it may as well be midnight. Unfortunately, this creates a struggle to get them to go back to their “School” bedtime hours.   

 A couple of things that has worked for me is starting school  bedtime hours about week or so before school starts. While this does work and gets them into the routine a little faster, it is not always possible for families due to late vacations, family visiting, and friends sleeping over. Another way to make the school bedtime transition a little easier is starting the nightly bath/teeth brushing earlier. This allows my daughters to feel like they have more time to play and read before going to bed. It also takes some of the sting out of the “time for bed!” call. We also have my older daughter read stories to her younger sister while they are in their room prior to bed. It is a win-win as they get to spend a little more time together in their rooms and not just going straight from playing to immediately going to sleep (and it encourages my oldest to read!). By mid-September they should be back in the swing of things (hopefully) and going to bed at their usual school time and waking up without too much effort on schools days. Now, if I can just get them to not wake up before the sun on the weekends!

Our sleep experts from The Jim Henson Company's series Pajanimals shared some of their bedtime transition tips here. Watch Pajanimals anytime on Amazon Prime.