Healthy Kids – The Importance of Rest

Children’s Literacy Initiative’s Healthy Kids book list series forges ahead in the effort to inspire liberating general health insights in children and their families. Drawing from Laurie Caulkhoven’s You Should Meet Roberta Gibb and Lizzie Rockwell’s Plants Feed Me, CLI has since tackled the value in exercise and balanced eating for growing children. Now that we’ve considered the benefits of moving our bodies and making informed eating decisions, it’s time to focus on resting and recharging. This week, accompanied by author Janet Costa Bates and illustrator Ag Ford’s Time for Bed, Old House, we will emphasize the similarly important and transformative nature of rest.

Rest is one of the essential elements of success. For anyone, a lack of good quality sleep can cause disruptive symptoms, such as fatigue, trouble thinking, and slowed reaction times that can interfere with even the most routine activities. When children aren’t sleeping enough, it can affect a variety of behavioral and cognitive functions that can lead to disruptive symptoms like depression, poor concentration, hyperactivity, tantrums, and poor school performance among others. By prioritizing rest, we can support our young children and set them up for success not only at home and in school but throughout the course of their lives.

Time For Bed, Old House Author: Janet Costa Bates Join us as we take a page out of Bates and Ford’s heartfelt, multigenerational book Time for Bed, Old House, and recognize the value of sleep and rest routines. In this touching bedtime tale, Bates and Ford take readers along for a young child’s very first sleepover. Issac is understandably nervous about being away from home for the first time. Luckily, Issac’s Grandpop knows an effective winding down routine that involves the two moving from room to room, shutting of lights and closing blinds, and listening to understand the unfamiliar nighttime noises that Grandpop’s house makes. By the time the two have traveled the span of Grandpop’s home, Issac (and Grandpop) are finally ready for bed. Bate’s heartfelt story and Ford’s cozy illustrations will have young readers and their families eager to draw inspiration from Grandpop’s nighttime routine.

Our Insights

Good, quality sleep every night is attainable, especially when employing good sleep habits. Create a relaxing nighttime routine like Grandpop’s for your young one to help them wind down before heading to bed. As per Mayo Clinic, establishing a consistent bedtime routine is key, so make sure to utilize bedtimes, establish screen times with phones and video games, and prepare for sleep with daily rituals such as taking a bath or having your young ones brush their teeth before bed. Creating a calming sleep environment is also essential to good, quality sleep, and can be manufactured by keeping your children’s rooms dark, cool, and quiet. With limited distractions, children will come to see their nighttime environment as a space to recover and recharge. Together, established bedtime routines and soothing sleep environments can help children of all ages reach the recommended hours of sleep needed to perform at their best each and every day.

See the full Healthy Kids book collection. These titles promise to provide insight into our history and inspire our future. Happy reading!