Getting our kids to sleep longer

Typically, my kids would wake up about two hours after I put them to sleep.  I made the mistake of letting them stay up, have a snack and play if they were pleasant.  I knew this was bad at the time, but daddy was usually home at this time and with his work schedule the kids didn't get to see him much.  However, when they'd wake in the morning they would be cranky from too little sleep and our days would be full of kids fighting and being mean to each other, and me being exhausted from trying to sort out all of the fights!

This had to come to an end.  So I explained to them the day I was going to implement it, how they'd go back to sleep on their own, without crying, so they could wake in the morning happy and have a happy fun day of play the next day.  I continued bringing this up throughout the day so they were reminded what would happen at night when they woke up.

When they woke up the first night, my son gave me the most trouble.  I asked him if he remembered that he was supposed to go back to sleep and he said yes, but he wasn't ready for it yet.  He cried, so I sat to talk to him for a minute to find out if there was anything scaring him, hurting him or bothering him.  He couldn't talk at the time (he was nonverbal at almost two), so this consisted mainly of me asking him questions - do you need this? does anything hurt? and so on.  He wanted a sippy cup, so I got him one and he laid down but was back up within a few minutes walking out of his room.  I took him back and reminded him it's time to go back to sleep, etc.  He started crying and wanted to come back out again.  When he came out of his room the second time, I put him back in his bed without another word.  He came out several more times after that, and I continued putting him back in his bed without a word.  I realized that this was new to him and it was something he'd have to learn, however I wasn't willing to open up 'the door' to whining or arguing.  After that, he went back to sleep.  My daughter was already back to sleep.

It took a few nights of explaining that we'd go right back to bed when we wake up, and a few trips back to his room when he'd walk out, but eventually he got the idea that he can't leave his bed.

Now, my son still does wake up.  Usually he's thirsty so I'll bring him a sippy cup with a little bit of water.  My daughter sleeps through the night at this point, and my son goes right back to sleep after he gets some water, and he will usually sleep the rest of the night also.

Now we're much better rested, the kids are able to learn better and they enjoy playing with each other!