After learning the process of how to put a baby to sleep, the next thing that parents look out for is tips to wake up a child for school. Though waking up a baby is not a very tough task, it is not as simple as waking them up with a shake.
A true parenting paradox is that your child will wake up before dawn on holidays when you want to sleep and they are nowhere out of bed and need to be dragged when they need to be dressed, groomed, fed, and sent to school.
Everyone wishes to arouse with a gentle wake-up instead of a dreaded alarm. Remember, how your child wakes up in the morning would decide how they would behave throughout the day. So here are our creative ways to wake up a child.
11 Effective Tips To Wake Up Your Child For School Without Yelling
Your life can be miserable every morning if you are dealing with a kid who’s grumpy, slow-moving, and doesn’t cooperate with you during wake-up. Remember, those first few mornings of the school year could be tough. But if you don’t make it through then, it will be very tough to establish one at the later stage.
Figuring out how to get your tiny tot awake and alert is a trick that needs a lot of thinking. A better plan is to stay calm and be organized in the morning. By this, you will be less stressed and more positive instead of starting your day with yelling and chaos. This will also help your child feel positive about the day ahead.
So here are ways to wake up a child effortlessly.
1. Make sure they get enough sleep
One of the best tips to wake up a child for school from sleep is putting them to bed at the right time. This is important so that the child doesn’t have any disturbing sleep cycles and can wake up on time without any difficulty. Many factors could affect the sleep of your children such as too much noise, siblings or parents who snore loudly, too much light, late to bed, incorrect room temperature, and too much screen time before bedtime.
Ensure the child sleeps in an environment that is safe and comfortable. You may want to follow these home remedies for baby sleep.
2. Plan early
Parents generally wait until the last moment to transition their relaxed holidays and wake up a schedule to that of those during school. It is an important process which many parents wait until the last day. Remember, when you just take the kid the night before the school reopening, you can’t expect a positive and smooth morning. Start preparing the kid at least a week before the start of school so that your child gets accustomed to the new schedule.
3. It is not just bedtime
While looking for the best tips to wake up a child for school, it is important to keep in mind that when you’re trying to put your kids to sleep, it is not only about taking them to bed. It involves scheduling to have dinner at a set time and limiting the computer, TV, and video game. This is a process and a routine.
Many parents feel that a curfew of devices will give them a tough time. However, you need to explain to your child about their privileges and the consequences which will help them understand better.
Related Reading: Smartphones-12 Reasons To Keep Your Children Away From Them
4. Good morning song
One of the funny ways to wake up a sleeping child is to start their day with a wake-up song. Make up a wake-up song for your kid by choosing one of his favorite songs as the base. Rephrase the words with lyrics such as “wake up, it’s time to school” by suffixing his name. You can also add lyrics that match your morning routine. For example, replacing the song ” are you sleeping” with “breakfast is ready”.
5. Give them something to look forward to
If your child doesn’t like going to school, tell them about something that you are up to which they would anticipate, and start the day positively. Thinking about something positive as soon as they are up from bed is a great way to start the day. These need not be big things either. It could be anything such as baking their favorite cookies or taking them for a play date.
Hand over her a sippy cup of milk she can drink so that she might not get pissed off if she is hungry. You can also hand over her favorite toys she can play with so that the child realizes that it is wake-up time and transits towards it.
6. Create a routine
This is one of the most important tips to prepare your child for preschool. It could be tough to get back to the school routine after staying up late for months. So, before you could try to wake up the child earlier, try taking them to bed early. Prepone the bedtime an hour earlier so they get accustomed to it easily. Also, if you could leave the blinds open during the morning, the morning light that comes in will [naturally] change the wake-up time of the kids.
You can turn off the white noise, draw the blackout curtains, and switch the light on. Teach your child to get out of bed to use the potty, or you may change their diapers if they are using one.
7. A little bribery is allowed
Kids of all ages, even teens are shopping sprees. They look forward to buying all new stuff, right from toys to backpacks to school supplies, etc. You can use this opportunity to let the kids know that they can get what they want provided they stick back to their routine.
Also, remember to bribe them only rarely. Through bribes, children learn that they can get something they want by acting out. Instead, you could turn this into a reward that would encourage them to do better further.
Related Reading: 9 Characteristics Of Permissive Parenting Style
8. Know your morning triggers, and plan for them in advance
This is common in every household. Right from the missing socks to the incomplete assignment, there could be a lot of things that could annoy and stress you during the day. Make sure to set aside 10 minutes every night to keep a check on whether everything is ready and completed for the next day. The problems could differ in every house but the common issue is still the same. Regardless of what your major problem area is, find a way to fix it.
9. Consider a morning task chart
One of the effective tips to wake up a child for school is to make sure to prepare a chart with all the tasks that need to be completed by the child before their breakfast. This includes activities such as getting dressed, brushing teeth, brushing hair, making the bed, and using the restroom.
Since charts are a big motivator for letting them know what they are supposed to do, you can use these creative ways to wake up a child. If your child doesn’t know how to read yet, you can prepare the chart with the help of stickers or pictures.
10. Create a common place
One of the coolest tips to wake up a child for school is to keep things organized in a common place. Nothing can be more stressful than a lost shoe or a pair of socks just before your child has to leave. Create a place where the child’s school stuff goes in altogether so that you need not stress yourself in finding it out each time.
Place these things right when they get home from school. These could include anything like homework assignments they need to do or the snacks and their pencil cases for the next morning.
Related Reading: The Top 10 Most Common Parenting Mistakes
11. Keep chores minimum
If you have your kids involved in household activities, make sure they are done during the weekends as that would never make it to school if they are into it. Make sure they are given simple tasks such as putting their PJs in the wash, making their bed, and taking their breakfast bowls to the sink. In this way, they are raised responsibly as well as minimize their work to an extent.
Conclusion
A child’s sleep is very crucial. Kids, unlike adults and older children, have trouble sleeping. This doesn’t occur from stress, yet poor timing. In other words, if you put a toddler to bed when they are not sleepy, they are not going to sleep. On the other hand, if you try to wake them up when they are in deep sleep, they may get upset. This instead will only make things worse because now they want to sleep more.
Toddlers need to have 12 to 14 hours of sleep per day; preschoolers need between 11 and 13 hours. Having said that, waking up a child isn’t some easy one-size-fits-all way that matches everyone. However, you can try our above-mentioned tips to wake up a child for school which works effectively.