Incentives for Waking up and starting School...

[SonshineLearner]

Hi There :D

 

SO, do you make your kids get up and start school? Do they do so willingly? Do you offer punishments or incentives? I really want my daughter to wake up sunshiny in time to start school at 9am. Reality is, it doesn't work well. I have yet to find the right "motivator" to get a happy willing student... Age.... 11... grade 6:-)

 

Carrie:-)

[Jean in Newcastle]

Make sure they go to bed early enough to wake up early enough.

 

Our routine -

 

wake up, come out to the living room and they get to watch a bit of cartoons to wake up. I come to the WTM board to wake up.

 

get dressed, make bed, make breakfast.

 

We start school at breakfast when I do our history read-a-loud.

 

About 20 min. of chores after breakfast:

My chores - vitamins, teeth, clean kitchen, start dishwasher

ds12 - vitamins, teeth, clean litter box and sweep

dd7 - vitamins, teeth, feed dogs, take inside recycling to big recycling bin outside.

 

Print out our daily school schedule. Hand one to each child. Kids start the written portion of school.

[HollyinNNV]

I wake my dd as I go downstairs to make her breakfast. She likes hot cereal. After it is ready I call her and she'd rather get up than have cold food.

Holly

[The Governess]

:iagree: I am NOT a morning person, but one thing that can always get me out of bed is a hot breakfast. :D

[katemary63]

We start school at 7:45 a.m. with daily devotions. Then right into our schedule at 8:00. DD8 has to start school no matter what at 7:45 a.m..

I wake her at 7:00. If she doesn't get out of bed then, she won't have time for breakfast and a little TV. It's up to her. But at 7:30, I make her get up to get dressed, sorry, no TV and you'll have to eat while we do devotions. That's no fun!

 

She goes to bed at 8:30, no ifs, ands or buts.

[AngieW in Texas]

My two younger girls are early birds. My 11yo is usually up some time between 6:30am and 7:00am (goes to bed around 10:30pm). My 14yo is usually up some time between 7:30am and 8:00am (goes to bed around 11:30pm or midnight). I usually get up around 8:30am (bed around 12:30-1:00am). We start school at 9am.

 

My oldest is a night owl like I am. She gets up any time between 8am and 9am. She doesn't have to start school until 10am. She usually goes to bed some time around 1am.

 

If either of the two younger girls sleeps late, I go ahead and let them sleep late. When they sleep late, it means they are sick or didn't sleep well the previous night.

 

If my oldest sleeps late, I wake her up. In her case, it's nearly always because she stayed up later than normal reading. She's usually still up when I go to bed.

[sunshine]

When you find the answer that truly works let me know so that I can get up and get going too!;)

[Tap]

DD11 gets woke up once to watch tv. If she gets out of bed, she gets 1 hour of tv time in the AM before school.

 

If she misses the opportunity, she has to start school without a chance to wake up ..and. she. doesn't. like. that. at. all.

 

She gets up.

 

 

Ds15 rolls out of bed and into breakfast or a shower, then does the other, and then starts school. He can easily start school 30 minutes after waking up.

[Peela]

I started it years ago by comparing what we are doing to school. School starts at 8.30 here. Kids have to be up by 7am- usually, at 7am. Breakfast and chores and piano practice before 8.30.

Dd15 is not a morning person. This year I implemented a morning walk for her- she also wasn't getting enough exercise. She takes the dog for a walk at 8.30 to be ready by 9am. I count it as PE though :)

For motivation...well, we bang on their doors, we make a fuss. Dd15 has coffee nowadays in the morning- either she makes one or picks up one on her walk- and that seems to help her wake up too.

 

Dh and I are morning people. If it were convenient, the kids could sleep in and start school whenever, but it just wouldn't work. We work into early afternoon, and I am pooped. I get up at 5 or 6am naturally, and I have an afternoon rest. We often have afternoon activities or evening activities, and dd15 has a job. It only works well if school is started by 9am at the latest. They just have to fit with that, even though I realise teens develop hormones which prefer to have different hours.

 

I think a key is to get them to bed on time. My kids need between 9 and 10 hours sleep most nights, still, so they are in bed by 9pm.

[gingersmom]

My daughter is an ice skater. So if she is not doing "school" by 9am then there will be no afternoon practice.

 

I generally wake her by 8:30am and she has 30 minutes to get dressed and get ready.

[MamaT]

We start school at 8:30 no matter what. I get everyone up at 7:30 and they have one hour to eat breakfast, tidy their rooms, and do their chores. We start with everyone together at 8:30 for Bible and memory work, and then go from there. I think it helps to have a set routine.

[Renee in NC]

We start school at 8:30 no matter what. I get everyone up at 7:30 and they have one hour to eat breakfast, tidy their rooms, and do their chores. We start with everyone together at 8:30 for Bible and memory work, and then go from there. I think it helps to have a set routine.

 

That's what we found - the more structured we are, the easier it is to get them going.

 

My 11yo is NOT a morning person, but he still has to get up. I don't expect a shining disposition, just up and not snarling at others. He does his chores and gets too work, but I realize he isn't really awake until about 10!:lol:

[LibraryLover]

It doesn't matter to me when they wake. My oldest dd is an early bird, and my youner dd sleeps in. I can spend some time with the oldest in the morning, and by 11 or noon, the younger dd and I can read or work together. We are a home not a school, so school issues or schedules do not apply. My nightowl is quite productive around 8 or 9pm, in fact.

[Ferdie]

My kids get a sticker on their sticker chart if they start school before 8:30am. They get an outing with Dad when their chart is full.

[mcconnellboys]

My age 11, grade six boy has a bedtime of 8:30, so he's usually up on his own by

7, which is plenty of time to be ready for school by 8. If he stays up too late for some reason, on the other hand, then he might be difficult to get up, so we try to stick with a regular bedtime that gives him plenty of sleep so that he can wake up at the time of day we prefer.

 

I guess incentives would be that if he doesn't do this, then he goes to bed earlier and earlier until he is able to do it. Or he takes a nap for several days until he seems to be better rested. He does have anxiety/depression issues, along with some other issues, and plenty of sleep seems to be key to his good behavior, in general.

 

Also, we have lots of things we do in the afternoons outside the house, so getting our work done (or enough of it done) to be able to do those things is another incentive to get up and get working.

[swellmomma]

I would have to make sure I was up first to make that happen. My 2 biggest wake up first and play Wii, I wake up about 10 minutes after them due to their noise, but spend 1 hour on the computer fully waking up. Then I head down and start making breakfast, then the littles get up. By that point it is 11am and half the day is gone. In the spring/summer they are all up at the crack of dawn. In the winter months it is dark so much later in the morning and that keeps them sleeping longer. Then again we are a family of night owls so I don't worry so much about morning wake up, because we can be seen doing school at 9 pm instead of sleeping.

[Hedgehogs4]

my day always has the same routine, but is regularly adjusted to what time the kids get up. That being said, there is about a 1/2 hour range (we're not talking hours), and i'm not a stickler for getting up at a certain time. I would rather my kids be rested than crabby and difficult while doing school. Getting to bed early is a priority, and I just try to be sensitive to their biorhythms. As long as the schoolwork gets done, I don't care what time we start.

[Renee in NC]

It doesn't matter to me when they wake. My oldest dd is an early bird, and my youner dd sleeps in. I can spend some time with the oldest in the morning, and by 11 or noon, the younger dd and I can read or work together. We are a home not a school, so school issues or schedules do not apply. My nightowl is quite productive around 8 or 9pm, in fact.

 

We are a home as well.

 

I wish I could be like you, but it never seems to work out. We end up getting very little done!

[Renee in NC]

My age 11, grade six boy has a bedtime of 8:30, so he's usually up on his own by

7, which is plenty of time to be ready for school by 8. If he stays up too late for some reason, on the other hand, then he might be difficult to get up, so we try to stick with a regular bedtime that gives him plenty of sleep so that he can wake up at the time of day we prefer.

 

I guess incentives would be that if he doesn't do this, then he goes to bed earlier and earlier until he is able to do it. Or he takes a nap for several days until he seems to be better rested. He does have anxiety/depression issues, along with some other issues, and plenty of sleep seems to be key to his good behavior, in general.

 

Also, we have lots of things we do in the afternoons outside the house, so getting our work done (or enough of it done) to be able to do those things is another incentive to get up and get working.

 

How do you get him to sleep at such an early hour? Mine will go to bed at that early of an hour, but he'll lay there awake until 9:30 or 10 anyway. I really think he needs more sleep (and he is MUCH nicer to be around when he gets more sleep) but I can't seem to get it to work.

[melissel]

When you find the answer that truly works let me know so that I can get up and get going too!;)

 

:lol: I thought the same thing when I first read this!

 

Seriously though, great thread. There are a few ideas here that will help me a lot.

[rafiki]

.

[kalanamak]

On the weekends, when I'm home and do the bulk of schooling, I find a gentle wake-up touch, followed by a "time to get up" about 5 minutes later, followed, at a similar interval, with removing the top covers, which he will then have to reassemble on the bed, to be very effective.

 

The next carrot/stick is brekkie, but then, my kid is always hungry.

 

When I'm at work, and want him up, I call. He loooooooooves talk to me on the phone. Wonder when he'll outgrow that. :)

[mcconnellboys]

When he gets out of the habit, it may take several days or even a week (end of summer) to get him to reset his internal clock to sleep earlier. But if we just stick with a regular bedtime and work to enforce that he's in bed, in the dark, lying quietly (rather than watching tv or something else), then he gets back into that routine. As long as we *keep* him in the routine, then we don't have problems. It's when we let it slip that everything goes haywire, LOL....

[EKS]

Screen time works well here. Each minute after the designated school start time they are late a minute comes of the screen time. I double how much comes off on days we have a deadline because of outside activities. I wouldn't say it works like a charm, but it does get the point across.

 

I know screen time doesn't work for all kids, but you need to find something she likes on a daily basis and attach starting school and completing schoolwork to that.

[Sputterduck]

No, I don't make my kid wake up and start school. He wakes up a couple hours before I want to get up, every day. Sometime I really wish he would sleep in.

[Renee in NC]

No, I don't make my kid wake up and start school. He wakes up a couple hours before I want to get up, every day. Sometime I really wish he would sleep in.

 

I have two like that, too! They both came into my room Thursday AM (at different times) saying, "Mama, it's 7, I want you to get up."

 

So much for sleeping in!