For a tiny baby, the beat of a rhyme or song and its associated actions, naturally and comfortingly take the place of the heartbeat of the mother’s womb and the movements of the mother’s body.

Singing along while stroking a crying baby’s back, peekaboo smiles with a tiny baby, little toe-tickling games, knee-bouncing a toddler faster and faster, swooping them high up in the air, touching fingers and toes one by one, soothing a little one to sleep ~ these are the kinds of interaction that can make babyhood and early childhood so precious ~ and for all of these interactions, there are little playsongs and rhymes to accompany them.

Your voice is the most important sound in your child’s world. They’ll love however your singing voice sounds. It’s the engagement that matters.

With our voice and our cradling arms we can croon a little one to sleep, or jog a toddler on our knee. But a song or a rhyme adds something ~ it engages us in the interaction for that little bit longer, which is so beneficial to us both.

Here are some favourites from the Playsongs resources. All of them work for any age or stage of early childhood.

From the very earliest days, when a baby’s focus is very limited still, they are learning your face and voice and those are the whole world to them.

Cradle baby close, and touch each part of baby’s face as you say this traditional play rhyme, while looking into baby’s eyes. A bigger baby or toddler will start to touch your face in turn as you say the rhyme.

Eye winker (touch cheek below one eye)
Tom tinker (touch cheek below the other eye)
Nose smeller (touch nose)
Mouth eater (touch mouth)
Chin chopper chin chopper chin (chuck baby’s chin)

Fundamental to communication, your voice, movements and expressions are all being absorbed by your little one. Songs and rhymes provide more of those long moments that bring you face to face and increase bonding time together.

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Hide your face behind your hands and peek out to either side, opening your hands wide on BOO in this little peekaboo song.

Can you play at peekaboo? I can play at peekaboo,
Are you there? Yes I am!
Are you there? Yes I am!
Peeka-peek-peeka-peeka-BOO!

Peekaboo is one of the most universal games we play with babies. It helps them develop the reassurance that even if we are hidden, we are still here. As a baby grows they’ll start to mimic us with their own peekaboo hands playing the game.

Pat your baby’s front lightly as they lie on a soft surface; smooth your open hand around their chest; walk your fingers down to baby’s feet and tickle baby’s toes. That’s how this little traditional song works.

It has the same tune as Two Little Dicky Birds, which you may know, but you can always freestyle it and make up your own.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, walk down the street,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, tickle your feet.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, walk up the stair,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, tickle you under there.

You can see that the song has a very simple pattern of words, melody and actions, and the joy is in the anticipation which those build towards the little tickle at the end. Songs and rhymes for this age are full of pattern and repetition, which are such an important part of developmental learning.

They also help baby to find the parts of their own body and start to recognise the names for them as you name and touch each part during a song or rhyme.

Tickle alert for this next one. My little grand baby loved this play rhyme so much, that she’d wordlessly hold out her hand for more, over and over again. That said, tickling should always be done with your baby’s consent.

A song or rhyme can be brilliant for distracting them out of a grump or a grizzle. Try it. It has restored good humour for me so many times!

Let’s eat an apple (take one of baby’s hands and pretend to gobble it up)
Let’s eat a plum (take the other hand and pretend to gobble it up)
Let’s blow a raspberry on your tum! (blow a raspberry on baby’s clothed tummy)

Do you know the tune to Hot cross buns? (Hot cross buns, hot cross buns, one a penny two a penny, hot cross buns.) Well it’s the same as the tune to this traditional foot patter – but it works just as well as a rhyme.

An ideal time to play it – or use it as a distraction – is when baby is lying on a changing mat with the soles of their feet handily in your reach.

Pat the soles of baby’s feet in turn to the beat of the song.

Hob shoe hob,
Hob shoe hob,
Here a nail and there a nail,
And that’s well shod.

Leg walkers are a lovely way to play, while baby is sitting on your knee. This time, instead of facing baby inwards face to face with you, turn baby to face outwards.

Take an ankle in each hand, and cross one over the other in turn to the beat of the rhyme. On JUMP, raise baby’s feet high in the air, supporting their body on your chest, between your arms.

Leg over leg As the dog went to Dover,
When he came to a style ~JUMP he went over.

With a bigger baby you can jump them into the air in a high lift. Step along instead of crossing ankles ~ it’s a good one for encouraging a toddler to make progress on a walk.

Knee-bouncing is such a favourite – particularly when you throw in a bump down between your legs onto the floor on ‘One fell off’.

The tune is Two Little Dicky Birds again! But this time there are three little monkeys bouncing on your knee.

Play-acting and exploring expression in voice and action is an important part of socialising as we learn to become communicators and to express our individuality.

Three little monkeys bouncing on the bed,
One fell off and bumped his head.
Mummy called the doctor and the doctor said,
‘No more monkey business bouncing on the bed!’

Here’s a traditional Irish knee bouncer ~ Achinaee. Bounce a little baby or toddler on your knee. On ‘floor’, quickly slide baby/toddler between your knees to the ground, lifting them back into your lap for more bouncing. And more and more and more…..

Achinaee, when I was wee,
I used to sit on my granny’s knee,
Her apron tore, and I fell on the floor,
Achinaee-a-ee.

A teeny tiny baby can’t tell us what’s wrong. Maybe it’s painful wind, or a fractious need for a nap. We’re probably all familiar with soothing a nearly new baby on our shoulder, gently patting or stroking their back, while swaying from one foot to the other. Not surprisingly there’s an age old type of song for that familiar stage – a croon.

A croon is a very simple, repetitive melody with very few words and with a slowly swaying rhythm, perfect for soothing and comforting a baby.

What may not be quite so well-recognised is the calming effect these songs have on ourselves and on our own distress. We’re tired out, we can’t remember the last full night’s sleep we had, we’re at our wits end, and the baby’s crying.

This one-word song can bring down the tension and soothe the distress of both adult and child. As you keep repeating it, it becomes restfully hypnotic, sung on, and on, and on.

Souallé souallé,
Souallé souallé,
Souallé souallé,
Souallé souallé,
Souallé souallé…

Well we could go on and on ~ I’ve only touched on that wealth of playsongs and rhymes, traditional and new, which make so many tricky moments of the day go more smoothly – nappy changes, washing and dressing, getting to places (specially with a toddler determined to walk – or not), teatimes, bath times, and bedtimes.

And that’s not to mention all their other many benefits ~ all the new language, imagination, co-ordination of both fine motor skills and whole body motor skills, emotions and empathy, and that most precious benefit of all ~ time spent together with undivided attention.

Sometimes I wonder if I ever grew up. I love the songs of early childhood so much. I’ve shared them with my own children, and with my grandchildren.

Through Playsongs Publications, I share them with everyone, and I hope you will have caught some of that pleasure and its benefits in the tasters I’ve given you here.

To access all the resources ~ books, audio, movies, blog ~ visit playsongs.co.uk

Mood swings can lead to frustration, imbalance and a lack of concentration. Often, these moods can be avoided by simply cutting out (or cutting down) sugar. Give them foods high in protein, whole grains and foods with natural sugar, such as chicken, eggs, oatmeal and fruit.

Start the day right with a healthy breakfast and make sure their lunchbox is filled with healthy, nourishing food too. Don’t forget some healthy after-school snacks too, as this if often when the sugary options are most requested.

More than just to help them focus, use food to boost your kids’ immune system – this is a fantastic way to keep your child healthy.

Foods rich in Omega-3 and fruit high in vitamin C; raw vegetables and legumes like barley are all power foods that will help to keep them from getting sick every other week.

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Piano, ballet, football and all the other extracurricular activities are all opportunities for your kids to acquire new skills – but it’s important not to overload their schedule. At the end of the day, a kid needs to enjoy some free time, which brings us to the next point…

It’s perfectly fine for your kids to get bored. In fact, experts encourage unstructured time for kids because it teaches them to come up with creative ways to pass the time. Boredom gives children a chance to develop their imagination, to think and to daydream.

Looking after your child’s mental health and reducing the stresses of their busy life is an essential aspect of keeping your child healthy too – so make time for relaxing, for going on a walk, for cuddles and chats.

When they spend hours sitting down at school and more hours playing video games at home, inactive children can gain weight, they can feel more frustrated, nervous and stressed.

Investing in active toys that encourage them to move, such as a small trampoline, a hula hoop or a jump rope, will help your kids unwind and move in a fun way.

It can prove impossible to forbid them from using gadgets, but you can set time limits so that they don’t spend hours glued to a screen. Despite how entertaining and educational apps and games can be for children, too much screen time can lead to anxiety, problems with sleep and weight problems

Screen time undoubtedly has a whole range of benefits, but it is very easy for it to be unproductive and for the time to just fly by. Take a look at the pros and cons of screen time, as well as some great recommendations from Mom Loves Best:

Sometimes, worries about school, difficulty with their homework, or a fall out with a friend can stop them from thinking of anything else. Keeping their hands busy, through fun crafts or by helping you with easy chores, is a helpful way to keep their mind off the serious issues for a little while. Thus giving them a mental break.

Whether it’s siblings playing outside or two friends meeting in a park, playing and interacting in the real world, more than interacting through social media, is a must for many reasons.

Playing outside in nature will give your child a much needed mental break. Moreover, it’s a good way of meeting peers and having a laugh or venting out their insecurities, so that they will feel reassured that they have a support system outside of the family.

We all want our kids to excel academically, but giving priority to play, where our kids can rest, is essential to see them grow happy, healthy and enjoying their childhood.

Sleep can cure everything — mood swings, a headache and even help them forget an embarrassing memory that happened at school. Your kids will be more focused, happy and less likely to get sick when they get enough hours of sleep.

And if you’re unsure how many hours of sleep is needed each night to keep your child healthy, here’s how much sleep your kids should be having for their age.

It really does help to write out a timetable showing the exact time for

• tidying up
• going upstairs
• laying out school things
• bathing
• teeth brushing and
• reading a story
• right up until ‘lights out’.

My tip: write the schedule on a large piece of paper and put it somewhere your child can see. If everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing, there will be fewer arguments.

Do the same thing each night for at least a week and you will see things starting to change. Consistency is the key here.

My tip: If after a week of doing this, you find you are still struggling to get your kids up to bed, start the routine earlier.

It’s not relaxing for your child to sleep in a room that has toys, shoes, clothes, books  strewn all over the floor. We all feel calmer in an uncluttered environment.

My tip: Make the tidying up process part of the bedtime routine – this will also help signal the ‘end of the day’.

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It’s better to sleep in a dark environment because light and hormones dictate our sleep patterns. When light dims in the evening, we produce a chemical called melatonin, which gives the body clock its cue telling us it’s time to sleep.

The sooner you can train your child to sleep in a dark room so much the better. Wean your child off night-lights as soon as you can by taking small steps to making the room darker each night, until you remove the light completely.

My tip: use blackout blinds to help block out light on summer evenings.

Keeping electronic gadgets like phones, laptops, iPods out of the bedroom is better all around, for the electro-magnetic field created by these stimulates the mind and will keep your child awake.

And, if they’re awake in the small hours of the morning, the temptation to go on to social media and chat to friends will be too great if the device is recharging nearby.

And this applies to TVs and DVD players too. Bedrooms are for sleeping and relaxing in, not watching screens. This may be tough for your child but it’s important for good health.

My tip: don’t recharge in bedrooms, do this elsewhere in the house.

It can be tempting to allow a child who’s nervous about going to sleep, maybe because they’re afraid of the dark, or regularly suffer from nightmares or night terrors, to have a staggered bedtime routine.

You could be allowing them time spent unwinding and snoozing on the downstairs sofa once they’re ready for bed, but this could be making your child’s sleep problem worse. They’ll find it increasingly difficult to get into the habit of falling asleep independently and you’ll be forever stuck with them on the sofa.

Kids need to learn how to lie in bed and fall asleep naturally. Yes, we’ve all fallen asleep in front of the TV before, only to wake up feeling disorientated and then we struggle to get to sleep when we do actually go to bed.

Disrupting the pattern of our sleep cycle regularly will only add to your bedtime troubles.

My tip: Create a ‘Worry Box’ to help with anxieties. Too often the first opportunity to think about worries is at the end of the day, when our minds are starting to slow down. Don’t be surprised if your child starts blurting out their problems at bath time. This can leave some children ‘wound up’ just when you want them to be winding down.

Encourage them to write each worry down on a piece of paper and put into a ‘Worry Box’. This can be an empty shoe box and your child can decorate it if they wish. Once the worrying thought is written down on a piece of paper, simply fold it up and pop it into the Worry Box, placing the lid firmly back on the box.

Psychological studies show that this works by tricking your mind into thinking that the worry has been dealt with. Let your child open their box once a week and look back to see how many of those ‘worries’ actually went away naturally or even needed to be have been worried about in the first place.

“How many hours sleep are children supposed have?” is a question I’m often asked.

Many parents are unsure of exactly how much sleep their children should be getting and how many hours constitute a ‘good night’s sleep’. Nowadays experts would agree that we all get far fewer hours than is necessary for good health. The information below shows how many hours are recommended by the NHS, according to their age and is a useful guide.

Recommended quantity of sleep by age:

• 1 year old: 2hr 30 mins day and 11hrs night
• 2 year old: 1hr 30 mins day and 11hrs 30 mins night
• 3 year old: 1-45mins day and 11 hrs 30 mins-12 hrs night
• 4 year old: 11hrs 30 mins
• 5 year old: 11hrs
• 6 year old: 10hrs 45 mins
• 7 year old: 10hrs 30 mins
• 8 year old: 10hrs 15 mins
• 9 year old: 10 hrs
• 10 year old: 9hrs 45 mins
• 11 year old: 9hrs 30 mins
• 12 year old: 9hrs 15 mins
• 13 year old: 9hrs 15 mins
• 14 year old: 9hrs
• 15 year old: 9hrs
• 16 year old: 9hrs

Alicia Eaton is a Behavioural and Emotional Wellbeing Specialist with a practice in London’s Harley Street. You can read more advice about dealing with children’s sleep issues in her book “Words that Work – How to Get Kids to Do Almost Anything”. 

Adopt a slightly earlier sleep routine in advance of the big night. In the few days leading up to Christmas, try and get them to bed a bit earlier. By the time Christmas Eve comes, you should be able to get them up to bed at the new time without too much complaining!

Make sure they get some outdoor exercise such as a winter walk. The fresh air will help to tire them out before bedtime. If the weather isn’t in your favour, then set up an indoor disco. At least an hour of jigging and dancing in the afternoon will have them worn out.

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Too much sugar can make kids hyperactive, especially towards the end of the day. Keep treats for the morning and minimise them in the afternoon.

Watching a festive movie together on Christmas Eve is a lovely family tradition and can help tire out little eyes. Avoid any movies that are likely to hype them up though, and pick a nice relaxing movie instead, like The Snowman, for everyone to watch together.

Make sure to switch off all devices, such as tablets and computers early, well before bedtime, to allow little brains to calm down and relax.

Get everyone’s teeth brushed and ready for sleep as early as you can. The bedtime routine on Christmas Eve will take much longer than usual with all the excitement and horseplay. Plus, you need time to hang up stockings, get out the milk and cookies for Santa, and the reindeer food sprinkled outside.

Baths can be a great way to encourage relaxation in kids, so pop them all in before bedtime. Next step is jammies and then downstairs for a final snack. You can’t forget to set out Santa and Rudolph’s treats before bedtime too.

Drinking a glass of warm milk before bed will help you to sleep better, it’s not just an old wives’ tale. Milk is rich in tryptophan, which helps in the production of the sleep inducing brain chemicals, serotonin and melatonin. For those who are lactose intolerant or avoid dairy, almond or soya milk will also work to relax your little one before they hit the pillow.

Pick a classic Christmas story to read to your child once they are tucked up. ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas or The Gift of the Magi are two favourites in our house.

If your child wakes during the night, which is inevitable, keep the disruption short, walk them to the toilet and back to bed, tell them to remember that Santa can’t come if they are awake.

Sleep consultant Lucy Wolfe recommends starting to change bedtime to an earlier time as soon as you can, ideally at least a week or a few days before back to school.

If bedtime has been later recently with lazy mornings, I would advise gradually bringing bedtime forward over the next week or so until you get to a suitable bedtime for a young child (typically between 6pm-8pm).  In tandem with this, I would encourage you to start waking your child in the morning, if they are not already up, by around 7am-7.30am so that you regulate their body clock and that there is plenty of time to get ready and out the door.  Ideally, your child should wake naturally in the morning, representing that they have had enough sleep for their body.

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If you haven’t already, start introducing a bedtime routine to help your child transition from alert to sleepy. Most children benefit from a 20-30 minutes wind down in their bedrooms, before they get into their cot or bed.

Use this opportunity to have calm and enjoyable one to one time with your child and to also provide consistent sleep cues and positive associations with the big separation that is sleep.

Make sure that your child has an optimal sleeping environment. Adequately dark both at bedtime and early in the morning to promote longer duration of sleep.

Ensure that your child is getting plenty of exercise, fresh air and exposure to natural light.  Coupled with a balanced, healthy diet this can help promote quality sleep.

Avoid television and other electronics within the hour before bedtime. Studies support that using the television and similar to wind down for sleep can actually have the reverse affect; inhibiting the production of the sleep hormone melatonin and causing the body to recharge and in turn find it difficult to ease into sleep.

If your young child still requires day time sleep, make sure that you allow for this.  A pre-schooler may find themselves in a period of transition, needing naps some days and not others.  Encourage “quiet” time everyday in the absence of a nap, to help them take time out from the busy day.

According to Niamh, preschool and school age children should ideally be getting at least 10-11 hours of sleep a night. So if your child is falling short of that, it’s important to look for ways to encourage longer, better sleep. 

Niamh recommends starting by gradually bringing back bedtime to an earlier time to avoid your child getting overtired before it’s time to go to sleep. Do this over a week, and bring back bedtime by 15 minutes every two days. This will not only lead to a longer sleeping time, but also better sleep quality. 

For children, there are roughly three phases of sleep during the night. Within each phase are sleep cycles. Each sleep cycle is roughly about 45 minutes and they go in and out of these during the night. 

According to Niamh, for the first four or five hours of sleep, your little one will go into quite a deep sleep.

From around 11pm or midnight onwards, for the next three or four hours it’s a much lighter phase of sleep and that’s where a lot of parents find there’s some difficulty for babies and children going from one sleep cycle into the next, where they might wake up.

For the last part of the night (from around 4am to 6 or 7am) they return to a deep sleep once again. Niamh advises that if you have an early riser, waking up too early at around 5am, it means they are missing out on that important last phase of sleep. In this case, she recommends trying to get them to go back to sleep if they wake up early, even if it’s just for an hour. 

Set clear boundaries and do not engage with any playful behaviour before it’s time to get up. Gro clocks are great for giving children a bit of control and gradually bringing wake up time to an acceptable time. 

Melatonin is the hormone that humans produce that gives us that sleepy feeling to bring on sleep. To encourage its production, Niamh recommends a dark bedroom. Blackout blinds for the summer months will help with this. 

For a healthy sleep routine, she advises dimming the lights as it gets closer to bedtime to help wind-down and encourage a sense of calm in children. 

If a child is over-tired, they will have difficulty getting into that first deep stage of sleep, as their body is fighting the melatonin with adrenaline. 

Aside from the obvious solution of a good nightlight, Niamh recommends keeping an eye on what is scary for your child. Keep in mind that what is scary for one child, might not be scary for another. 

Playing games that involve the dark in some way (for example, hide and seek together in a dark place) can help to reassure your child that the dark isn’t something to be afraid of. 

Nightmares are scary dreams that generally happen in the middle part of the night, in the lighter phase of sleep. Children will wake and be upset and generally will accept comfort from you. 

Night terrors are different. They tend to happen in the earlier part of the night, during the deep phase of sleep. They are usually quite dramatic and quite often your little one won’t be comforted by you.

Niamh notes that night terrors are often way more distressing for the parent than for the child and they usually won’t remember the experience the following day. Niamh advises that it’s important to acknowledge this fact the next day, by not going on about the episode to the child, as doing so might encourage fear about bedtime and going to sleep. 

Niamh recommends restricting the type of TV that older toddlers and children watch to make sure they’re not watching anything that could frighten them and trigger nightmares. She also advises parents to turn off the TV an hour before they go to bed. 

With older children, if they wake in the night because of a nightmare, do some sensory play or arts and crafts play with them and ask them what it is that’s frightening them. Through play, they might be able to work it out (if it’s not immediately obvious what they’re afraid of).

Often night terrors are as a result of the child being over-tired in the first instance, so Niamh advises keeping an eye on bedtime and how tired children are before it’s time to sleep. 

If you find that your child is waking around the same time every night with night terrors, rouse them maybe half an hour beforehand – lift them up, give them a cuddle. The idea is to break the cycle, so that when they fall back asleep again you have helped to soothe them through the change of sleep cycle.

Check out the full Facebook live video with Niamh to get all her tips and advice. You can also follow Niamh on Facebook and Instagram or check out her website for more sleep tips for babies, toddlers and children. 

Lull them to sleep with the sound of classical music playing in the background. It will help their mind to relax and focus on the music instead of their thoughts. Spotify, YouTube and other streaming platforms have plenty of classical music playlists for kids, so stick one on and see how effective it is for your child.

Soothing scents such as lavender and frankincense are the ingredients you need to look for when purchasing a pillow spray or essential oils for your diffuser. You want to work with the natural rhythm of your child’s body, and diffusing these timeless fragrances will help to calm their body and mind.

Weighted blankets are trendy, and there’s a good reason behind it. They are proven to soothe restless bodies, help anxiety and therefore, improve sleep. This weighted blanket from Amazon is suitable for the ages of five and upwards. The material is made from cotton shell, so it’s gentle on the skin.

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Hit those sweet pressure points before your child drifts off to sleep. Grab some massage oil and rub it into your child’s hands, wrists and feet. The motion and hitting the pressure points will eradicate stress and built-up tension over their day.

The baguette pillow is hugely popular amongst kids of all ages, and it’s easy to understand why. It offers comfort to your child by giving them the impression that someone is beside them. If you’re finding yourself sleeping in their bed more often than your own – this is one to definitely invest in.

You’ve probably heard of this sleep solution before but it’s often overlooked. The temperature of a child’s room has a big impact on their precious sleep, whether it’s a draft, too toasty or chilly. The HSE recommends a room temperature of 16°C to 20°C or 62°F to 68°F for sleeping children.

Adequate exercise during the day can transform your child’s sleeping patterns. This includes pre-teens in particular, as getting them out the door is a lot easier said than done. However, whatever the weather, if you do manage to get them moving, it will boost their mood, release stress and anxiety – and most importantly, tire them out.

When the bath is running, throw in some natural bath salts to give their muscles get a chance to relax after a busy day. Turn on the heat when they’re in the bath and put on your child’s jammies on the radiator. Make sure their jammies are suitable for the season and they aren’t too tight or itchy. This way, when they get out of the bath, they’re straight into toasty comfortable clothes. It’s a combination that usually has me yawning, never mind my daughter.

For older children, pre-teens and teens, apps like Headspace and Calm are excellent for winding them down for the evening and getting them ready to sleep. Incorporate the mindfulness apps into their bedtime routine but make sure they put down or turn off the device once the session is over.

Dream catchers can assist your child in getting rid of bad dreams and promoting positive ones. If you are looking for one, make sure you support a Native American business and buy them authentically from these communities. Dream catchers have a rich cultural history and meaning, the importance of which you can explain to your child, so they understand its roots and cherish it.

Bring in some twinkly, bright and beautiful lights. If they are scared of the dark but too old for a nightlight, fairy lights are the perfect compromise. It means if they awake during the night, they won’t panic and can fall back to sleep that bit easier.

From adorable bunnies to cute dogs, nightlights come in such a large variety of animals, shapes and sizes – nothing like they were in our day! So sit down with your child and pick one together. You can also find ones that will have heartbeats. The repetitive nature of the beat will help to encourage sleep, similar to counting sheep.

If you had a favourite teddy or blanket when you were little, you will understand the comfort behind this sleep tip. During the night, if your child wakes up after a bad dream or just a disturbance, having a blanket or teddy close by can provide them with a sense of comfort, and they won’t be hopping out of their bed and into yours.

Light up their ceiling with stars and space to ease them into a good night’s sleep. Connect the ceiling light to your classical music and watch the night’s sky dance and glide to the rhythm. You can set it for an hour or two, and it will automatically turn off once the timer is up.

When everyone is tired, the last thing you may want to do is tidy up your kids’ bedroom floors. However, spending 10 minutes putting toys and distractions away might save you hours in the long run. Big distractions such as devices should be kept in another room entirely. That way, they won’t be tempted to get out of bed to go and play.

1. I’m not tired.

2. I’m too tired.

3. There’s a monster under the bed/in the closet/behind the curtains/under the duvet!

4. It’s too dark.

5. It’s too light/bright.

6. My {insert body part} hurts.

7. I can’t find my teddy/blankie.

8. I need a pee.

9. I need a poo.

10. I forgot to tell you something.

11. My friend doesn’t go to bed until {insert really late bedtime here}.

12. I need to give Mommy/Daddy a kiss.

13. I don’t think I brushed my teeth enough.

14. I have too many “thinks” in my head.

15. It’s hard to sleep.

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16. My bear / doll / cuddly toy keeps looking at me.

17. I’m thirsty.

18. I’m hungry.

19. I’m too hot.

20. I just need to finish this game.

21. I’m too cold.

22. I can see something sticking out of my drawer/ the closet door is open.

23. I need different pyjamas/nightie.

24. I forgot to hug the dog / cuddle the cat / say night night to the hamster.

25. You forgot to kiss and say night night to all my cuddly toys!

26. There’s a fly in the room.

27. I need another hug / kiss / cuddle.

28. My pyjamas are too small.

29. I need to ask you a question.

30. My favourite show is coming on and I need to watch it (ah the joys of Satellite TV recording, for now being able to nip this in the bud!)

31. My brother/sister has to go to bed too, I’m not going until they go.

32. I have homework, I forgot to do it.

33. I need another blanket.

34. I need to tell you I love you (getting very creative now – they know this will tug at our heart strings!).

35. I need a light on.

36. I need the light off.

37. Can you sing me another song?

38. Can you read me that book again / just one more chapter please?

39. Can you tell me another story?

40. The door is not open enough.

41. The door is not closed enough.

42. I want to keep reading my book.

43. I’m lonely.

44. My pillow is too hard.

45. My pillow is too soft.

46. I need some music on.

47. The music is too soft I can’t hear it.

48. The music is too loud I can’t sleep.

48. I’m having bad thoughts about that programme I watched on TV (2 months ago!!).

49. I had a bad dream (despite you leaving room only 1 minute before, and they couldn’t possibly have fallen asleep yet!).

50. My blanket/duvet has fallen off (even though is within their reach).