We’re homeschooling.  And one of the benefits of that is that when Olivia has a late night, or isn’t feeling well, she can sleep until she’s fully rested in the morning. We don’t normally start school until around 11, actually.  Our whole day is probably a few hours off of the normal American routine.  🙂  She gets up around 9, eats around 10, and we do school at 11.  Of course, it’s just kindergarten, so it doesn’t take long.  And I break it up so there’s a section for the afternoon when the boys are sleeping as well.

But lately, as I see the school bus drive past at 8am every morning, I wonder if I should be building in her the discipline of rising early to do her work.  I mean, when she does finally leave to go to school, whether it be middle school, high school, or college, she’ll have to get up early.  And when she gets a job.  And when she has children of her own.  And I want her to be prepared for that.

But, thus far, it has always been my practice to let sleeping babies lie.  That way I get more time to myself.  To write blog posts about whether or not I’m doing the right thing in letting my sleeping baby lie.  And also, to do last night’s dishes.

So my question is this:  do you let your babies sleep as long as they want?  At what age do you start waking them up?