Like millions of other families around the world, we “enjoyed” a longer-than-typical season of unstructured hours this summer due to COVID-19 and the very early spring shutdown of our kids’ in-person schools.

After Labor Day, however, half of our household will resume scheduled, synchronous activities. One of us is even expecting to attend classes in person, though we are opting for our child to only join his small group on site while weather permits outdoor education.

Something I learned years ago from travel across time zones—yet only painful personal experience drove the point home in the parenting arena—is the value of gradually shifting the kids’ wake up times in the weeks leading up to any dramatic change of schedule. I follow a similar procedure myself to fight jet lag, and it definitely helps me to function better upon arrival in a distant locale.

If your kids have been sleeping until noon, do everyone a favor and wake them up earlier tomorrow. Try waking them up 30 minutes or an hour earlier each day until you’re back to the usual academic term rise & shine time. Shifting one’s schedule by a little bit each day doesn’t feel great, but it does eliminate a large shock of pain from a sudden transition.

This year has been weird enough. Let’s ease this transition for our little ones as much as we can!

♦