Bedtime

So bedtime used to be really challenging in our house. To the point where I just absolutely dreaded it! I used to procrastinate putting them to bed until they were so tired that they could only cry for a few minutes before falling asleep. We had tried so many things. Many people had given me the advice of a routine before bedtime which we had tried such as baths, brush teeth, etc. never worked. They still cried and threw a fit for hours. Needless to say, we all lost sleep over it and all dreaded this time of our day.
Well, about 7 months ago my sister and her 4 kids moved in with us. We took this opportunity to go on a vacation while leaving our kids at home with my sister. We were gone for a week. The night after we came home, my oldest started to head downstairs at bedtime. When I asked where she was going she said she was going down for scriptures. Of course this was kind of hard to hear but it made me think. Now at the time we had a 4yo, 3yo, and a 1yo. I really didn't even think it was possible to have family scripture study. Not only that but I didn't really see the point. I did think it was important for my husband and I to read the scriptures but we understood what we were reading. They obviously wouldn't. We were also experiencing really hard times financially. I don't know about you but when we go through trials, one of the things we do is step back and analyze our lives at the moment and look for ways to bring ourselves closer to the Lord. So we decided we should be having our family scripture study. Although we didn't expect it to change our children's lives at this point, we had faith that simply following the counsel of our leaders would give us blessings that we so desperately needed.
Since mornings were so hectic and rough for us, (mostly due to the late bedtimes =]) we decided to read at night before bed. We got the kids in their pajamas first which they were ok with doing since they weren't going right to bed. Then we brushed teeth and all sat down for scripture time. We decided to read one chapter a night. Our kids love to read so they were pretty excited to have this fun time as a family sitting down to read. Another thing I felt was really important was to include them as much as possible in the reading. Although none of them could read, my 2 oldest could talk. So we let each of them repeat the words to one verse each. This would keep them interested while also teaching them the "language" of the scriptures. After our chapter, we all knelt down for family prayer (which we had already been doing but for some reason, we had a hard time calming them all down and getting them to sit still and participate). Then off to bed. This worked perfectly!
We decided it was very important not to miss a single night. We wanted our kids to see how important scriptures are so we said no matter how late it was or where we were, we would read. Well we really didn't start doing this to make bedtime easier but it naturally did! About a month or so later I realized how nicely it had been going. The kids no longer cried about going to bed, it was amazing! Maybe it's the routine we now have but I firmly believe the Lord is blessing us for following his counsel. I don't know how much my kids are getting out of it either. But it works!
~Ariane