The Old Bedtime Pass Puncher (Kip’s Guide to Sleep: bedtime pass technique) bu Robert Boddington and Jack Robertson, illustrated by Yoon Park and Matt Hughes

Title: The Old Bedtime Pass Puncher (Kip’s Guide to Sleep: bedtime pass technique)

Author: Robert Boddington and Jack Robertson, illustrated by Yoon Park and Matt Hughes

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

Published: 1^st August 2022

Format: Paperback

Pages: 68

Price: $14.99

Synopsis: Molly always wants to get out of bed for all sorts of reasons, even though she needs to go to sleep. Luckily Kip is around to help Molly, along with a very special friend…the Old Bedtime Pass Puncher.

Some children get in and out of bed multiple times before falling asleep. We call these ‘curtain calls”! They want to tell you something, they want a drink, they want to go to the toilet…the list can go on and on!

If your child does this, this book is for you! It takes you and your child through an evidenced-based technique called the Bedtime Pass.

This technique helps to limit the number of times your child can come out of the room before bedtime, and allows the child to make the choice about what they really want your help with at bedtime. Remember to reward them the next morning for properly using this method.

~*~

Molly is always trying to find a way to get out of bed – she’s hungry, she’s thirsty, she needs to toilet – but she still needs to sleep. When she calls to Mum for everything she thinks she needs, Kip appears and gives her a pass and access to the Old Bedtime Pass Puncher so she can get out of bed – but she can only use it once! What will Molly use it for?

Like Molly, many children know they need to go to sleep, but will find ways to delay going to sleep – and they will try anything. Kip gives parents a technique to help keep children in their room at bedtime, and avoid having them come out of their room multiple times when you want them to sleep. As Kip shows Molly the different options she can use her pass for, she learns that she can only choose one and that she needs to make this choice matter. It is about what will help Molly fall asleep and how she finishes her day comfortably. Using stories to show this behaviour to children is fun and entertaining rather than didactic, and they are patient, allowing space for questions  and explanations, so you can talk children through their sleep routine.

The research of Professor Harriet Hiscock, a leading figure in paediatric sleep studies has inspired this series of books designed to help families navigate a range of sleep issues and challenges, and her scientific insights have been distilled into charming and captivating stories that speak to children on their terms and in ways that they can understand, so they can learn about proper sleep and empathy. This story tackles children struggling to go to sleep without mum or dad – and this book can help families navigate the challenges around kids who try to delay going to bed and show them how they feel like they must get out of bed multiple times before going to sleep. The story captures the anxiety about being left alone to sleep and what it must feel like for young children who struggle to sleep.