Editor's note: We are thrilled to have Kerry Kelly Novick join us as a Parenting contributor on AnnArbor.com. A psychoanalyst who has worked with children and families for more than 40 years, Kerry is one of the founders of Allen Creek Preschool. She will write a weekly advice column that will run on Tuesdays. Have a question about your child's behavior or development? Email Kerry and she may answer it in a future column. To get the ball rolling, I sent Kerry the first question. -Jen Eyer

Dear Kerry, Since our 6-year-old daughter began reading independently at the beginning of the summer, she has been staying up later and later. With school starting in two weeks, I feel that we need to get her back on a reasonable schedule: getting up earlier and going to sleep earlier. So far our efforts to enforce a "lights out" time have been met with heavy resistance. What suggestions do you have for how we can help her fall asleep earlier? And what other things should we think about doing to get her ready to go back to school? JE, Ann Arbor

Dear JE: One of the joys of summertime is the change in routine. The long days make for long evenings. And how exciting to be able to use a new skill, especially with the independence you describe your little girl enjoying! It’s not hard to imagine how much pleasure she is getting from reading until late at night. The challenge is to support that pleasure (you wouldn’t want to discourage her reading!) while getting her back into a routine that meets your concerns for her sleep and prepares her for the school year.

Children are in charge of when they fall asleep, but parents are in charge of bedtime. To avoid turning bedtime and lights-out into a battle, I suggest you talk together as a family about how you are all going to make the transition from the "summertime pattern" to the "school-year pattern."

You can ask your children for ideas about what will be the same and different. You can talk about how you think beforehand what you will take to work and things like where you put your keys to make sure you can find them without delay. It starts to get fun to plan what to pack in her backpack together the night before, where you will put it to be ready to leave in the morning, how she will decide what to wear the next day and which shoes will be suitable for the weather.

Moving bedtime and waking up back 10 or 15 minutes every day in the weeks before school starts is an important part of getting our bodies and minds back into that rhythm. Explaining how we get ourselves used to a new pattern takes the issue of bedtime out of a power struggle into the area of life skills learning.

Parents can share the effort and successes: "Wow - it was hard to get out of bed yesterday, but it was easier today. I guess I'm beginnng to get used to it and it helped to turn off my light a little earlier. How did it feel to you this morning?" You might also suggest that she can get up a little earlier to have time to read.

Soon everyone will be back on "school time" and ready to roll. Have a nice beginning to first grade!