Babywise is a great help for getting baby to sleep, but did you know there are many more great Babywise benefits? Moral training, discipline, structure…

For many of you, I know your goal with Babywise is simply to get the baby sleeping through the night and hopefully taking good naps. After that, you might let the principles from the -wise series dwindle into a fond memory…

Then one day your two year old will cause you to think, “Is there a babywise book for this age?”

Post Contents

Babywise Is More Than Just Sleep
Importance of Moral Training
Importance of Structure
Related Structure Posts
How to Do Babywise
A Complete Summary of the Babywise Method
How To Prepare for the Birth of Your Babywise Baby
Sleep Training According to Babywise (Baby Wise)
How To Go Out With Your Babywise Baby
Parent Directed Feeding (Babywise PDF) Explained
Adjusting for Context Using Babywise

Babywise Is More Than Just Sleep

In my mind, the sleep benefits are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to raising your child. Believe me, it is great. Good sleep habits and good eating habits will be the foundation for having a happy, well-behaved toddler, preschooler, and beyond.

Importance of Moral Training

Something I personally love about the -wise series is the focus on moral training. If you are looking for nothing more than sleeping and eating, something like Secrets of the Baby Whisperer will suit you just fine. With the -wise series, you get good tips that help you train the heart of your child. The tips are often very much common sense. You just don’t think of it on your own.

Read: What vs. How Of Training Your Child’s Character

Importance of Structure

The -wise series also keeps you focused on structuring your child’s day. What is the big deal about structure? As On Becoming Preschoolwise puts it, children left unattended for great lengths of time get into trouble (page85). And keep in mind that a “great length of time” is not as long for a child as it is for you ;). So structure helps your child stay out of trouble–though that doesn’t mean your child won’t ever get into trouble.

I have a couple of stories to illustrate children getting into trouble without supervision. A little over a year ago, Brayden and Kaitlyn were playing in the sandbox. Brayden was just over three and Kaitlyn was around 15 months old or so. I decided to go in the kitchen and clean. The sandbox is close to the house, so with windows open, I could hear if something as amiss. When I went out to get them, however, I saw that hearing was all that needed to be happening.

Kaitlyn was soaking wet. I asked Brayden what happened. Well, apparently she was dirty and he turned the hose on her. She was happy as can be…but wet. I had not been gone more than 5-10 minutes.

Read: Structure Brings Freedom

Another story happened about 5-6 months ago. Brayden was approaching four and Kaitlyn was approaching 2. My husband and I were busy painting and prepping McKenna’s room for her arrival. Brayden and Kaitlyn were playing together nicely in Kaitlyn’s room. When we went to get them ready for bed, we saw that they had covered Kaitlyn’s bed in a huge pile of toys. Huge! They were quite proud of the structure.

These stories don’t end in tragedy or really anything bad, it just illustrates that when kids are left to their own devices, they do things that aren’t really beneficial to anyone and create a lot of cleanup for everyone (assuming you require their help).

Structure helps you guide your child’s day. You can provide independent playtime where he can learn to problem solve and learn to do an activity as directed. You can have set meal times and set nap/rest times. You can have free play where your child chooses an activity to do, but knows his limitations.

You can have learning time where you teach him things based on age. You can have time that is unplanned and you are spontaneous if that is something you enjoy.

How To Do a Learning Activity of the Day

Structure helps you work those things into your day that are important to you. If you decide to continue on with the -wise series and look beyond “just” sleep, I don’t think you will be sorry you did. You can follow things as loosely or strictly as you like. You will find many helpful tips that provide prevention as well as tips for dealing with discipline issues when they arise.

Structure has definitely made life with three children much easier for me. I know when McKenna will need me. I know when I will have time to myself. I know when we can have learning time.

Here is a sample of the order we do things so you can see what you can get done with structure (read more in How To Set Up a Dail Schedule for Three Kids):

Eat breakfast
Learning time
Sibling play
TV time
Bath time
Independent play
Take a walk
Eat lunch
Scripture study
Nap
Learning time
Free play
Dinner
Spontaneous time (Daddy is the spontaneous one in our family). We do family activities and projects.
Family scripture study and prayer
Bed
Time with my husband! (I had to throw it in there because it is a nice perk)

We, of course, have variations at times. We have days we go to the park. We have random different activities thrown in there. But my point here is to show the many different things we are able to get in a day. It isn’t stressful to get these things in, and it is all thanks to the structure.

How to Do Babywise

How to do Babywise tips from the Babywise Mom. How to use the Babywise method to get baby sleeping. Everything you need to be successful with Baby wise!

Babywise Is More Than Just Sleep

Importance of Moral Training

Importance of Structure

Related Structure Posts