Toddlers and Summer: A Survival Guide
Summer can throw your toddler's schedule for a complete loop. The days are longer thanks to later sunsets, activities can be limited and different due to sweltering heat, and vacation planning can all make it difficult to maintain your toddler's schedule that they thrive on. Want to enjoy summer without the stress of the schedule? Keep reading for some actionable tips for keeping your toddler's schedule, surviving summer, and how bubbles help save the day!
Maintaining Your Toddler's Nap During Summer
When maintaining your toddler's nap schedule during summer fun, it is important to ask yourself a few questions. These include:
- Does your toddler get extremely cranky in the afternoon, act out, or otherwise become difficult to manage if they skip their nap?
- Is your toddler a picky napper? IE: They only nap comfortably at home, never in a stroller or elsewhere?
- If your toddler skips their nap, is their nighttime sleep affected?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you understand how sacred naptime can be, and doing anything to disturb that time is highly stress-inducing.
However, you want to be able to enjoy summer while also maintaining their nap. How do you do it?
A few of our favorite tips include:
- Front-load the day. If you're worried about a cranky, tantrum-filled afternoon if your toddler skips a nap due to excitement, vacations, events, or traveling, just front-load your day. This means you should schedule your outings and events for the morning before nap time, and allow the afternoon to remain open in case your toddler skips their nap.
- Accept what may come. Going on a vacation, long drive, or a fun summer event? Your toddler might fall asleep in the car, on you, or in their stroller. Accept whatever kind of nap may come and don't stress about how long it is, how loud it is, or the quality of it. A snooze is a snooze!
- Try again next summer. This whole nap thing is just a phase! Rather than stressing yourself out this summer trying to schedule things around nap time, just put it off for next summer. Keep things easy this year and only choose things that you and your toddler can handle.
- Pack a calming activity. If summer fun gets your toddler too overstimulated to nap, make sure you have a calming activity to give them. Spike's toddler-friendly bubble blower is a great way to calm your toddler through rhythmic breathing and mesmerizing bubble-watching.
Managing Bedtime With Late Sunsets
Trying to put your toddler to bed at 7pm while the sun is still shining can be an extremely difficult task!
Here are some tips for making the transition to bedtime a little easier with summer's late sunsets:
- Set the mood. Close the blinds and curtains in your home 30-45 minutes before bedtime. You can even light a candle, put on lamps with warm-colored lights, and get snuggly on the couch.
- Traveling? Make sure you bring a blackout option for your child's room, including suction-cup shades, temporary blackout curtains, or even black construction paper.
- Make the clock the boss, not the sun. Remind your child that bedtime is at the same time every night, even if the sun is still out.
- Change the rules for summer. If you're enjoying the outdoors around 7:30 and don't want to break your child's fun, don't! Try keeping them up a little later and see how they do. Why not?
Calming Activities for Naptime or Bedtime Prep
Summer can bring a ton of overstimulation to toddlers, so it is important to give them some time to zone out and wind down before heading in for a nap or bedtime. The two best new calming activities you can try before nap or bedtime are water play and bubbles.
Calming Water Play
Water can be very mesmerizing, calming, and fun for toddlers.
Whether you simply fill up a couple of bins and toss in some water-safe toys, have an actual water table they can enjoy, or just give your toddler a calming bath, water is a great way to get your toddler ready for nap or bed.
If your toddler already loves water play, simply shift and organize this time within the hour before nap or bedtime. During the rest of the day, get their body moving and having fun before they start winding down for water play.
Bubble Play
Spike's toddler-friendly bubble blower is a great way to get your toddler calm and ready for nap time or bedtime, even if you're on vacation, at the beach, or at a BBQ!
Your toddler will love being able to dip, twirl, and blow their own bubbles all by themselves.
Spike has two formulas you will love: One that is ideal for indoor play if it is way too sweltering to play outside, and another that is best for outdoors, where the bubbles can last longer and float farther!
Plus, the bubble solution that is included with every wand is botanical, nontoxic, and safe for sensitive or sun-kissed skin during the summer.