Dream Jar

My five year old has pretty awful dreams. All night he will be calling out, thrashing, kicking, and hitting. Luckily, sleep walking hasn't came into the equation yet! I always feel so bad for him. As a parent it is one of those helpless situations.

All though I have read many books to help "A" with bedtime fears none of worked as well as The Dream Jar by Lindan Lee Johnson. An older sister helps her fearful little sister by making her a "magic" dream jar. That way if the little sister has a nightmare she can wake up, pick a dream from the jar, and change the nightmare to fit her new and better dream.

Next "A" and I got busy brainstorming so happy memories or thoughts that he may want to use to change is bad dreams into good ones. We wrote slips that include riding roller-coaster rides, Mom's kisses (my favorite), playing with Daddy, magic wands, etc. and then rolled them up like in the book. I got a baby snack jar and "A" decorated it with some happy stickers. I added some fun confetti to the jar for a sprinkle of magic. "A" loves his jar and every night he picks a slip to help him have good dreams. It has been working-so far! At least the feeling of helplessnes has ceased.

One of his worst dreams is of dinosaurs out to get him. This way he changes the scary dino into a sweet pet.

2nd major dream is normally vampires (not sure how he even knows about them). This way the teeth are gone and they can be friends. This was his ideas

And of course every boy should dream they have their own car to drive away in.