Getting ready

Ninety minutes earlier, over four weeks.

They wake at 8:30 and the school door opens at 8:45. That is the whole problem, and it is a timing problem rather than a sleep one. They are already getting the right amount. It all just needs to move earlier, gently, starting now rather than the week before.

Nothing is being taken away

Right now they sleep about 11 hours at night plus a one to two hour nap, so roughly 12 to 13 hours across the day. The recommended range at their age is 11 to 14 hours including naps, so they are comfortably mid-band.

The target keeps exactly that and shifts it: bed 8:00pm, wake 7:00am, nap around 12:30 to 2:30. Same sleep, ninety minutes earlier.

Four weeks of roughly twenty minute steps gets there by August 30, which leaves the new rhythm locked in for a few days before the first morning. That matters more than it sounds. You do not want the schedule to be the second new thing on September 2.

01

Why 7:00am, and not later

The door is open for five minutes.
8:45 to 8:50, then it shuts. It opens again at 9:00 and 9:15 and not in between, for door security. Arriving at 8:52 means waiting outside until 9:00 with two toddlers.
The handbook singles out lateness.
Not as a fee, as a cost to the child. Arrival is when classmates greet each other and choose their work, and walking in after that is a harder entry into the room. Missing it repeatedly makes settling slower.
A 7:00 wake leaves a real buffer.
Roughly 80 minutes to wake, feed, dress, get shoes on and cross Nyack. With two 25 month olds who are learning to put their own shoes on, that buffer is the plan, not padding.
Bedtime has to follow the wake time.
Waking them at 7:00 while bedtime stays at 9:30 just makes them short of sleep and harder at both ends. The two move together, which is what the ladder below does.
02

The four week ladder

Roughly twenty minutes a week. Small enough that most days it goes unnoticed, and slow enough that a bad night does not undo it. If a week goes badly, repeat it rather than skipping ahead. There is enough room in the calendar to lose a week and still land it.

Week 1 . August 3 to 9
Wake 8:05, bed 9:05
Twenty five minutes earlier at both ends. Wake them rather than letting them surface on their own, and open the curtains straight away. Morning light is what actually moves the body clock, more than the bedtime does.
Week 2 . August 10 to 16
Wake 7:40, bed 8:40
The nap will start drifting earlier on its own now. Let it, but hold the two nap rules below. This is usually the week the earlier bedtime starts feeling natural instead of forced.
Week 3 . August 17 to 23
Wake 7:20, bed 8:20
Twenty minutes. Start running the morning in the real order this week: up, dressed, breakfast, shoes on by themselves. Not against the clock yet, just the sequence.
Week 4 . August 24 to 30
Wake 7:00, bed 8:00
The target. By the end of this week it should be ordinary rather than new. The teacher's home visit also falls somewhere in here, which is a good week for them to be well rested.
August 31 and September 1
Hold it, and rehearse
No further changes. Run the full morning twice, including the drive, arriving at the school by 8:45 even though you are only turning around. Orientation is the 1st, so the 31st is the natural day for a proper dry run.
Wednesday, September 2
First day, on a rhythm they already have
Only one new thing that morning instead of two.
03

Naps

They are enrolled full day, 8:45 to 2:45, so the nap happens at school. The aim between now and then is for the nap they take at home to sit where the school's will, so the body is already expecting it.

Target window

12:30 to 2:30

On a 7:00am wake, a 25 month old is usually ready around five to five and a half hours later. That puts the nap at roughly 12:30, running about an hour and a half to two hours.

Rule one

Cap it at two hours

Longer and the 8:00pm bedtime stops working. If they are still going at the two hour mark, wake them. This is the rule that protects the whole ladder.

Rule two

Nothing past 3:00pm

They need roughly five to five and a half hours awake between the end of the nap and bedtime. A nap that runs to 3:30 pushes bedtime to 9:00 and undoes the week.

Two things to practise before September

Napping on the school bedding.
Full day children sleep on a crib sized sheet and blanket, not in their own beds. Buy that bedding early and use it at home for the last two weeks so the smell and feel of it are already familiar. It goes home every Friday to be washed.
The lovey rule.
The school keeps comfort objects in the nap bag only, never during waking hours. If either of them relies on something to fall asleep, it is worth knowing now that it lives in the bag and comes out at nap time, so day one is not when they find that out.
Confirm the school's actual nap window.
The handbook does not print it. Ask Holly at orientation on September 1 and move the home nap to match if it differs from 12:30. One question, and it makes the first week easier.
04

The rest of the rehearsal

Sleep is the big one. These are the smaller pieces, worth adding one per week rather than all at once, so none of it feels like a campaign.

Week 1: shoes on and off, by themselves.
Every child changes into indoor shoes on arrival, and the school treats it as a lesson rather than a chore. Velcro they can work alone, no slippers, no laces. Practising now turns the first morning's first task into something they already know how to do.
Week 2: leaving and coming back.
Holly's own method, and it is the single best preparation for the phase-in. Tell them you are going to the other room and will be right back, then come back. Then a short errand. The point is not the separation, it is repeatedly proving that you return.
Week 2: dressing without onesies.
The school asks for separates, because a onesie makes independent changing impossible and they use every change as self care practice. Switching now avoids a wardrobe surprise in week one.
Week 3: lunch from a box.
Full day means lunch comes from home, with no meat or shellfish anywhere in the building. Eating out of the actual lunch container a few times at home makes it ordinary. Snack is provided by the school, so only lunch needs practising.
Week 4: the morning in real time.
Up, dressed, fed, shoes, in the car, at the school by 8:45. Twice. You will find out where the actual ninety seconds go, and it is never where you expect.
Not now: toilet learning.
The school says plainly that the first month of school is the wrong time to start, because a child adjusting to a new rhythm is not noticing their own urges. They will tell you when readiness shows. Leave it until October at the earliest.
05

If a week goes badly

Repeat, do not push

Hold the week again

There is a spare week in the calendar. Repeating week two is free. Jumping to week three on top of a bad week is how the whole thing unravels.

Expect a wobble

Early waking is normal

Moving bedtime earlier often produces a few early wakes before it settles. It usually passes in three or four days. Hold the wake time through it rather than letting them catch up in the morning.

Protect one thing

The wake time

If only one part of this holds, make it the morning. A consistent wake time drags the rest into place on its own. A drifting one undoes everything downstream.