Memminger Elementary program impressing on students that if they don't snooze, they loseBy Diette Courrégé (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Grace Beahm Anastasia Jones does her part to get enough sleep by taking a nap along with her 4-year-old kindergarten classmates Tuesday at Memminger Elementary. The need for sleepRecommended nightly hours of sleep: 3-5 years old: 11 to 13 hours 5-12 years old: 10 to 11 hours Teenagers: 8 1/2 to 9 1/4 hours National Sleep Foundation Nathaniel Frasier puts his kindergartner to bed by 9 p.m. each night and wakes him up at 6:30 a.m. for school. He thought his son was getting enough sleep and didn't realize until this week that recommendations call for up to an hour and a half more sleep than his son gets now. "That's a big difference," he said. "I thought that was too much sleep." Frasier signed a contract Tuesday promising he would move his son's bedtime up by an hour, and he's curious to see if it makes a difference. The bedtime contracts are a school-wide initiative at Memminger Elementary in Charleston to create awareness about the importance of sleep, and to encourage parents to set and enforce earlier bedtimes. "I'll give it a try," Frasier said. "It's a good idea." Children who don't get enough sleep are more likely to get in trouble in class or lose their focus on the day's lessons, and it's a problem for many Memminger Elementary students, principal Diane Ross said. Some stay at work late with their parents and don't get home until 11 p.m., while others stay awake for hours watching TV in their beds, she said. When students get into middle school, some stay up late sending text messages on their cell phones, said Kathy Lewis, a school climate specialist working with Memminger Elementary. The situation has implications for the school's test scores. Many students admitted to filling in random circles on high-stakes standardized tests because they were tired, Ross said. Students need more than one night of good sleep to be well-rested, she said, and that's why school officials have started pushing to change students' habits. Research shows that many children don't get enough sleep. Children ages 3 to 5 get nearly 10 1/2 hours while they should average between 11 and 13 hours, and first- through fifth-graders get an average of 9 1/2 compared to the recommended 10 to 11 hours, according to the National Sleep Foundation. "So many people don't realize fourth- and fifth-graders should be in bed by 8 p.m.," Lewis said. Eighteen elementary schools on Johns Island, downtown Charleston, West Ashley and Hollywood are participating in this sleep initiative. Some are sending fliers home to parents, some are making presentations to PTA groups and others are asking students to track the amount of sleep they get each night. Memminger Elementary has embraced the effort to spread the message that students need more sleep. Ross stood in a robe outside Memminger Elementary on Tuesday and asked parents whether they signed the bedtime contracts. Students wore their pajamas to school, and teachers organized classroom activities around the issue of sleep to emphasize its importance. School officials plan to track the number of discipline referrals for the school's younger students to see whether the figures decrease when students get more sleep. The school also held a meeting for parents Tuesday morning to talk more about the relationship of sleep to their childrens' well-being. Jessica Rabon attended the parents' meeting. She has 5-year-old and 7-year-old daughters at Memminger, and she said they get grouchy and don't want to do their homework when they don't get enough sleep. She's a stickler for bedtimes and makes sure her children are in bed by 7:30 p.m. and are going to sleep by 8 p.m. Every family should set bedtimes for children, she said. "They need their sleep," she said. Reach Diette Courrégé at dcourrege@postandcourier.com or 937-5546. |
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Comments
This article has 31 comment(s)
Posted by afuller414 on March 20, 2008 at 12:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
i am a high school student, and the recommended hours of sleep for someone my age is about 9 hours. how can we possibly get that many hours of sleep with school, still sitting down and having a meal with my family at dinner, and homework? i have about 3 hours of homework each night, i still have to help out with cleaning the dishes, and by that time, it's wayyyy past the time to go to bed to get those hours of recommended sleep time. with everything going on, it just isn't possible. for someone in elementary school it's even worse. 11-12 hours of sleep? if they have to get up at 6:30 for school, they would have to go to bed by 6:30.. some parents don't even get home from work until 6, and still have to cook dinner. although it'd be nice to get all those hours of sleep, it just isn't possible.
Posted by 5thGenerationLocal on March 20, 2008 at 7:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Are you crying? You kids have it way too easy these days. You don't even have to go to the library to research a paper. You can sit on your couch and surf the internet wirelessly nowadays.
It's called time management. How long do you think teachers are up? Remember, teachers are probably parents as well. So, with their having to get up early to feed, cloth and get the children off to school, they teach all day, then have PTA meetings, coach sports, and then back to parenting afterwards. Grading papers and whatever else they have to do... You don't too often hear of teachers complaining.
Buck up kid. It gets worse as you get older.
Posted by jca on March 20, 2008 at 7:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
i agree with this actually. my son is 5 and goes to bed at 7:30pm on school nights
to the top comment its called starting homework as soon as you get home. stay of the pc chatrooms and instant messengers. teens have their priorities backwards. your social life is done on your weekend sat and sunday. the bedtimes are possible. when i was in high school i was in bed by 10pm. with all of my homework done. you have a study hall do some then. we did when i was in school
Posted by lillady on March 20, 2008 at 8 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I have to come back at this one. My 16 yr old daughter DOES stay out of chat rooms and starts her homework when she walks in the door at 4:30. With honors classes and a B average, no after school job, ect.. She has no time for anything. The homework "I" had in highschool compared to what they have now is night and day. Even my younger kids in elementary school... there is a ton more homework. BECAUSE of the fact they can do their research at home, I think the schools have made it harder. I am sorry but I have been there too many nights watching them try to get through all of the homework and I DO keep an eye on what they are doing. It's a different world now than when "we" were growing up.
Posted by johnwen on March 20, 2008 at 8:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Good thing he/she doesn't live on a farm :)
Posted by theronce on March 20, 2008 at 8:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
From my mid teens to almost 50, I pretty much operated on 4 to 6 hours a day week days and week ends, work weeks and holiday weeks. Occassionally, I would crash for 8 or 9 hours. Anyway, I ditto the time management solution. There is no more or less time than ever. The tasks, required and desired, may have changed, but the solution is still the same. Don't whine; get cracking.
Posted by ColdBeer on March 20, 2008 at 8:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I guess the billions of us that grew up without 11 hours of sleep every night were just lucky to survive??? Those of us that got 7 to 8 hours of sleep and excelled in school were just freaks of nature???
This is BS. No one needs 11 to 13 hours of sleep every night. I think this is a plot by fat, lazy people to try and slow the world down to their pace or a plot by lazy parents that don’t want have to spend too much time taking care of the kids they have. Let me see... 13 hours of sleep, 8 hours in school, 3 meals a day, at least 2 hours of homework through middle and high school. That's what... about 25 hours? By this plan the kids do nothing but eat, sit on their butts in class or doing homework and sleep. Can’t see any obesity issues springing up there can you? And look, except for feed thing kid, the parent doesn’t even really have to interact with them.
Sheesh…
Posted by yougogirl78 on March 20, 2008 at 9:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
JCA - How in the world do you get your 5 year old to bed that early? Please share your secrets :) I have a 5 and 3 year old that refuse to go to bed before 9pm. They are on a bedtime routine, but as they have gotten older it has been getting harder and harder. I agree with the article. If mine are in bed late, they are total grumpy heads the next morning. Good for Memminger for stepping up to the plate! Let's hope other schools in other counties join in.
Posted by Early on March 20, 2008 at 9:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I know I feel bad if I don't get enough sleep. I guess every person is different. I would look for the signs by observing my child's behavior and would hope to get feedback from the teachers before I would force my child to bed. As others have posted, we Americans have a very busy schedule and to be able to spend some quality time with our kids is a pretty big deal.
Posted by allwoman on March 20, 2008 at 9:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
My 2 year old is in bed by 6:30 no later than 7:00, my 4 and 6 year olds are in bed by 7:00 no later than 7:30, and my 9 and 11 year olds are in bed by 9:00 no later than 9:30, and weekends and breaks from school are no exception. I can see the difference in their attitudes and behaviors and grades when they get less sleep. My younger girls wake up all whiny and have bad days in school and my boys are a little more irritable and fight with each other and their classwork, homework, and test grades a slightly lower.
As far as the homework thing goes, they get their work done as soon as they step foot across the threshold. There is no playing, no watching tv, and no video games until all homework is complete.
Posted by ColdBeer on March 20, 2008 at 9:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This article is a good example of why schools need to stick to teaching academics and leave the rest of child raising to the parents. I'm glad that my parents were not so lazy as to force me in to bed 2 or 3 hours before the sun went down.
Posted by allwoman on March 20, 2008 at 9:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)
CB-
It's not an issue of being lazy, it's an issue of knowing what my children need and making sure they get it. Trust me, I spend more time with my kids than some parents who allow their kids to stay up the extra 2 hours after the sun goes down.
Posted by ColdBeer on March 20, 2008 at 9:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Yea, maybe my lazy comment is not justified in all cases. Each family is different and does things their own way. That's fine. I base my comments on what I see at one of my friend's houses. They put the baby down at 6:30 and expect it to stay down until 6 AM. This is a baby that's only months old. They have a "book" that teaches them "good sleep habits" In that case, the wife is just lazy. She's lazy in all aspects though, not just when it comes to taking care of her kids.
Still, I'm glad my parents didn't expect me to sleep that early in the evening when I was growing up. I think out bed time was around 9 PM until we hit our teens, then it was flexible between 10 and 11 until probably my sophomore year in HS when I started setting my own hours.
Posted by halfsheli on March 20, 2008 at 9:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think the schools would stick to academics and leave the rearing to the parents if more parents would step up to the plate. This incentive (not a law or edict) makes parents aware of the need that ELEMENTARY aged children have for sleep. The truth of the matter is -- for whatever reasons -- children are not getting enough sleep. In an ideal world where all parents did their jobs and made sure that their children were well-rested for school (which is the child's job) this would not be necessary. Certainly this is not aimed at parents who make sure their kids do what they need to do, but to those parents who either don't know or don't bother.
Posted by AHLeland on March 20, 2008 at 10:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I fear that this article and this program are not directed at any of us who are reading and commenting on it. This is for the parents who allow their young children to stay up too late. Exactly what is too late does vary from one child to another but the message they are trying to get out is that tired children are not as ready to learn and can be a distraction to the rest of the class. I think everyone can agree with that. I know that missing a few hours of sleep still makes me grumpy!
Posted by RTC on March 20, 2008 at 10:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Try getting a child to bed early that takes any type of medication for ADD or ADHD. Children that take a drug that is basically the same thing as speed don't go to sleep very well.
The teachers will complain the loudest, if the child doesn't take their medication.
Fortunately, I only had one child that was on this type of medicine. I swore that no child of mine would ever be on Ritalin, Adderall, or any of those drugs.
You change your tune when nothing else works, and the phone won't stop ringing, because your child can't pay attention, or is constantly talking or getting out of their seats.
They give your child tests, and then your child's doctor decides if your child needs medication. If you refuse to give these drugs then everyone's life becomes miserable.
These people need to realize that these drugs have bad side affects, and not all children can be programmed to go to sleep at a set time. It just doesn't work.
Posted by allwoman on March 20, 2008 at 10:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
CB-
I have seen those instances where the parents use sleep as a form of babysitter so they can have more "me" time or simply so they won't have to pay attention to the child. I see it as an issue when a parent has to force the child into bed. I have a relative that spanks her kids until they fall asleep if they don't do so voluntarily. Heck, she popped her 1 year old so hard one night we were at her house, my mother went in and took the child from her.
My children have no problems going to bed early. My 2 year old knows her schedule so well, that if I put her PJs on her before she eats she whines and says, "Mama, want eat" because normally I wait until after dinner to get her in her jammies so she doesn't go to bed messy. Then once she is finished eating she goes around the house telling everyone "night-night", goes in the room, says her prayers, and climbs into bed. I go with her to tuck her in and to kiss her good night, but for the most part she does it on her own.
As far as my bedtime when I was growing up, I was like you. I went to be at 9:00 while in elementary and middle school and anywhere between 10 and midnight when I was in high school and I still graduated at the top of my class and never got into big trouble in school. Like you said, each family does things differently, it's all in finding out what productively works for you.
Posted by carogirl80 on March 20, 2008 at 10:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
My elementary children are in bed by 7:30 each school night so they can be asleep by 8:00. We follow a routine. On non-school nights, they can stay up to 8:00 or 8:30. We have always stuck with a bed time. How can you not? Children thrive on routine and depend on it.
Whe I was in high school, which wasn't too long ago, I am sure I didn't get the recommended amount of sleep and I did fine in school. I think each family needs to keep the recommendations in mind, but decide what schedule will benefit them the best.
Posted by prosperous_hb on March 20, 2008 at 10:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Train a child while they are young, so that when they get old, they won't stray. If kids are taught the essence of sleep at a young age, they will understand the benefits of it when they get older.
Me personally, I can get by on 4 - 6 hours of sleep.
Posted by LowcountryMoose on March 20, 2008 at 12:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Schools and parents need to make sure that kids get enough physical activity each day. They also need to stop feeding kids crappy sugar-filled foods and drinks. If children actually ate healthy diets and exercised the sleep problems would magically disappear.
Posted by allwoman on March 20, 2008 at 1:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
LCM-
Exercise? Don't you know that's why they invented the Wii!
Posted by ColdBeer on March 20, 2008 at 1:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We love our Wii! My wife ruined the bowling though by getting a perfect 300 before I did.
I rock at tennis and boxing :)
Posted by prosperous_hb on March 20, 2008 at 1:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Trying playing Madden on the Wii. It's awesome with a capital A!!
Posted by allwoman on March 20, 2008 at 1:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
My kids keep throwing the ball behind them in bowling. I kick butt in baseball.
Posted by ColdBeer on March 20, 2008 at 2:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Putting some more thought in to this....
If you child gets up at 6:30 AM to make it to school on time and when they get home they spend 30 minutes eating dinner, 30 minutes taking a bath, 2 hours doing homework and they need 13 hours of sleep (the article said an "average" which means more than 13 hours on some nights)... that means they need to be home in 2 minutes. You have to take your kids out of school early each day so that they can get their required sleep.
Posted by allwoman on March 20, 2008 at 2:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
CB-
I just wanted to tell you how we do it in my house, However, we still don't reach the required amounts of time:
My kids get off the bus at my mom's house at 2:30. They are normally finished with their homework at 3:30-4:00. They, then, go outside and play until 5:30, at which time I pick them up and get them home by 5:50, no later than 6:00. My husband is already home by 5:40, so he has started heating up dinner , which was cooked the night before after the kids were put to bed to minimize the time that they actually have to wait for dinner, (and he would have already prepared a plate for the 2 year old so that she can eat as soon as we get in the house). My 2 older girls (4 and 6) take their baths while dinner is heating up and I look over all of the homework and give help to whoever needs it during this time.
My 2 year old is normally done with her dinner right around the time the older girls finish their bath (about 15-20 minutes), I then take her and give her a bath, my husband feeds the rest of the kids because by this time dinner is ready. Once they are finished eating, we let the older girls tell us how their day went, we read a story, and off to bed they go. The boys stay up a little longer so they have time to hang out with my husband and me after they have taken their baths.
The 2 year old gets about 11 hours of sleep, the 4 and 6 year olds get about 10, and the 11 and 9 year olds get about 8-1/2.
Posted by ColdBeer on March 20, 2008 at 3:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This is how we do it:
My wife's alarm goes off at 5:30 AM so she has time to cook my breakfast and make my coffee before I get up. I get up at 6:00 AM and step in the shower (water is already warm as that is also one of my wife's duties). I eat, drink my coffee and watch 30 minutes of Headline News while my wife fixes my second cup of coffee, starts the laundry and then heads off to work. I leave for work about 7:55 AM as I am only 2 miles from my office. I go home for lunch sometime between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM depending on how I feel and eat whatever lunch my wife prepared the night before. If she neglected to prepare me a lunch, I go to Ruby Tuesdays or something similar and spend a lot of money to teach her a lesson. I get home between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM depending on how I feel. I crack a cold Bud Light with my neighbor and wait to be called to dinner. My wife gets home from her "job" at about 5:30 PM, which gives her plenty of time to prepare my fresh hot dinner for 6:00 PM. I then watch 30 minutes of Headline News while she does more laundry. I pet the dogs and cats, after she feeds them and cleans the litter pan and then I settle in to watch an hour of Scrubs on the Comedy Channel. At 8:00 PM, I usually go back out and enjoy a few more cold beers with the neighbor while my wife continues the laundry and prepares my lunch for the next day. She usually lets me know that the lunch is ready as she passes me on her way to the garbage can. When we had kids in school, she was much busier.
This is all a complete fabrication of course :)
Posted by allwoman on March 20, 2008 at 4:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thanks for clearing that up Coldbeer. I was about to find your wife and have a little talk-see with her about you.:-)
But that would be an ideal life for some.
Posted by GG on March 20, 2008 at 4:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Cold Beer-
The article clearly states that children 3-5 years of age need 10-13 hours of sleep. It doesn't recommend that for all ages.
Posted by mnbvcxz on March 20, 2008 at 9:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
ravenel gets 10 months, then parish should get 10 decades...
Posted by DanniD on March 20, 2008 at 9:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
cold beer, that is very funny!!! I love it. The sad thing is that your story is probably true for some households.