Perfect Bedtimes

Provides guidance on proven practices for achieving consistent sleep routines with children.

“Perfect” refers to a ready routine each evening that can be completed in ten minutes every night. Timed to reinforce essential, lengthy sleep for children.

Guidance from American Academy of Pediatrics as shared by SleepFoundation.org

Examples from Perfect Bedtimes:

"Research shows that children who follow bedtime routines are more likely to go to sleep earlier, take less time falling asleep, sleep longer, and wakeup less during the night."

"Bedtime routines are a consistent, repetitive set of activities that are carried out every night. They help prepare your child for sleep by having them relax and wind down. A predictable routine also gives your child a sense of security and teaches them how to fall asleep on their own."

"The bedtime routine [with minimal light] should conclude with lights-out. You should leave the room while your child is sleepy but not asleep yet. This way they learn to fall asleep on their own, and they won’t panic if they wake up in the middle of the night and find you gone."

To reinforce the pre-slumber routine ". . . avoid [routinely] intruding into your child's sleeping space"

“""Set a consistent bedtime that leaves enough time for your child to sleep the recommended number of hours for their age ." [listed in the book]

A consistent bedtime routine: Possible nightly in ten minutes, including two minutes for story time--telling / read by the parent or caregiver to a tucked-in, ready-for-sleep child with limited light in the room. The balance of the ten minutes is left for genuine, caring interaction, concluding one day's end and anticipating the day that awaits tomorrow.

Reading together for extended periods at bedtime is reading time as opposed to a consistent, time-managed routine overseen and encouraged by the parent / caregiver who can include shared imaginative experience by telling or reading a short story to the tucked-in, ready-to-sleep child. Perfect Bedtimes includes 28 charming two-minute stories with consistent setting, characters, and pace that reinforce a healthy bedtime routine. The central character, a talking and actively-engaging balloon carries forward inspiration from the 1956 Oscar-winning short film: The Red Balloon.

Bo Bo and Neighborhood Kids Help
Floris Fieldmouse

Two mornings after the Big Storm, while flying over a nearby farm, Bo Bo saw Floris fieldmouse moving slowly near the edge of one of the farm fields. Bo Bo wondered why Floris was moving so slowly, since she always moved very fast.

He flew close so that Floris could hear him and said, "Hi Floris. Good morning. How are you today?" Floris stopped, looked up and smiled at Bo Bo and said:

"Hi Bo Bo. Good morning. Nice to see you today. I’m a bit tired from having a longer trip from my home to get to the corn field.”

"It’s great that the farmer finished collecting the corn from the stalks, and now’s the time to collect the corn kernels that fell to the ground."

Bo Bo asked, "Why is the trip to the field longer for you today?"

Floris said, "Many tree branches fell during the storm. And some branches are blocking my path to the field. I have to use the path that goes to the pond and then hop through tall grass to get to the corn field. It’s a much longer trip for me to get to the corn field.”

Bo Bo said, "I’m sure the neighborhood kids and I can help move the branches so you can use your faster path to the corn field. We’ll do it today. We are all glad to help you."

And that’s what Bo Bo and the neighborhood kids did. Some of the branches were big and heavy. Six kids and Bo Bo all had to lift and carry the branches away from Floris fieldmouse’s path.

The kids also made a few trips to the corn field and picked up many corn kernels that had fallen to the ground. They carried the corn to Floris’s home.

Floris was so happy and shouted, “Yippie!” as she saw the piles of corn kernels outside her home.

The neighborhood kids were happy to help Floris.

She said that she would try her path to the field the next day to search for any left-over corn kernels.

The next morning, Bo Bo saw Floris moving quickly on her regular path from the corn field as she carried many corn kernels to her home.

Bo Bo said, “Hi Floris. Great to see you moving quickly on your path today. You’ll have plenty of corn for the winter months ahead. Have a great day!”

Floris stopped and said, "It is a great day. Thanks to you and the neighborhood kids!"

[The book advises parents / caregivers to show the illustration accompanying each story at the end of the reading / story-telling]

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Example Two-Minute Story from the book. Reinforcing ten-minute consistently healthy bedtime routine.

Key Character: Who / What is Bo Bo?

The 1956 Oscar-winning French short film,
“The Red Balloon,” inspired the role of a friendly, talking balloon in the stories.

“Bo Bo” means “Uncle” in Mandarin, a nickname the author’s colleagues and friends in Beijing used as a measure of appreciation of and in honoring him.

Perfect Bedtimes

Floris Fieldmouse

About David Dupree

Perfect Bedtimes reflects David’s appreciation of charmingly consistent, time-managed, pre-slumber bedtimes with his daughters and in knowing that other parents could experience the same too. The pre-slumber ten-minute-average routine included a brief story (average of two minutes) that often connected with actual experiences of kids at play in Belvidere, New Jersey near the Delaware Water Gap, a peaceful small town surrounded by farms, woods, streams, and bordered by the Delaware River.     The story-telling-time provided essential, parental imaginative sharing for just a few minutes as part of the consistent pre-slumber routine of around ten minutes every night with each daughter -- which they made it clear that they expected up into their early teenage years [though consistency began to wane at the early "teenage years"  : ) ]

Accomplished writer David has won many fiction and non-fiction literary competitions. In 1978, Sigma Xi, publisher of Scientific American, recognized him as one of the most published undergraduates in the sciences in the U.S.

David found time to publish and share Perfect Bedtimes after retiring from a 40-year career that began as writer and director of numerous science and engineering-related documentaries. He also served as lead author supporting projects involving technologies of the world’s largest engineering and energy companies, supporting the energy needs and economies of over 50 countries.

From personal impact as a global team leader of Shell plc, David’s team members and peers in Beijing referred to him as “Bo Bo”—Mandarin for “Uncle.”