Last weekend, my preschool daughter and I dug out our plastic eggs and Easter baskets and began decorating the house for spring. She took it upon herself to gather all her toy bunnies, ducks, rainbow unicorns and anything else she deemed representative of spring and put them out to “decorate her bed.”
I was pretty sure she’d thought of every bunny in the house. (Her collection already included a clay one I made as a child, which has somehow survived for 30 years and found its way to her room. She also unearthed a white washcloth with googly eyes vaguely tied into a rabbit shape.) But then my daughter remembered one more.
“Mama! We have to get the bunny from Bedtime Board Game,” she said. “And the gems kind of look like cute little Easter eggs!”
My daughter has been a Bedtime Board Game player for more than a year now, so I can whole-heartedly endorse it as a great Easter basket gift. (And not just because it apparently doubles as seasonal bedroom decor!)
Bedtime Board Game entered our lives after I’d been complaining to family members about what a fight my daughter pitched about getting ready for bed each night. Putting pajamas on, brushing teeth and going to the bathroom all prompted delays, arguments and negotiations. And forget about cleaning up toys. That task usually ended with my bedraggled husband and me shoveling Duplo blocks into a box while giving the “you need to help our family” lecture to a tearful kid lying face down on the couch. But a few weeks after I shared my woes, a solution arrived in a box tied up in a bow!
Bedtime Board Game added structure – and more importantly, fun – to the nightime routine. And, it turns out my daughter will do almost anything to get her hands on “a beautiful gem!” (Sometimes, if we’re really strapped for time, we even challenge her to see if she can get through the whole game in 10 minutes or less.)
Since receiving the gift of Bedtime Board Game, our nightly conversations sound a lot more like, “Okay, the monkey is ready to brush teeth now so you can earn his blue gem!” They sound a lot less like “C’mon. It’s getting really laaaaaaate. We seriously need to brush teeth now, or we’re going to run out of time for books!”
Evenings sound a lot more like, “Look! The bunny has her cute pajamas on. She wants you to get yours on so you can get that next gem!” And a lot less like, “Seriously. Please stop dancing and get your jams on now… You’re not listening to me… Okay. Whatever. Just sleep naked.”
And, from my daughter’s side, things sound a lot less like, “Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!” And a lot more like, “Look! I earned all the gems! Now I get to tuck the tiger into his bed so we can read books! I love you, Mommy! I love you, Daddy! Everything in my life is magical and good, and I am calm and ready to sweetly snuggle beside you!”
(Okay… maybe not exactly like that verbatim, but that’s what it seemed like in my mind the first few nights we realized what Bedtime Board Game could do!)
So, from my family to yours, wishing you a Happy Easter and sweet dreams!