Are your children able to wake up early in the morning to go to school on time?
Often, during the summer holidays, children go to sleep quite late. Nowadays, children watch TV and play on their computers and smartphones until the late hours of the night, and sometimes even later.
Parents of teenagers often feel helpless, when their children turn the night into their day, and their day into their night. They go to sleep late and wake up late.
Now that the summer holidays are ending and the school year is beginning, children will need to wake up earlier. How are you going to deal with this?
Some planning is required, as well as some degree of discipline and firmness.
Now is the time to start limiting the time for watching TV and playing on the computer. You, as a parent, have to draw limits and tell your children to switch off the TV and the computer at hours that you decide about.
It would be a good idea if the hours of going to sleep and waking up were changed gradually and not abruptly. Each day your child should go to sleep a little earlier and wake up a little earlier.
If you send your child to sleep hours earlier than he or she became used to, they will oppose the idea and not accept it. They will also find it difficult to fall asleep.
Someone has said that changing the hours of going to sleep and waking up is similar to experiencing jet lag. It takes time to get used to the new hours.
Tips for Waking Your Child on Time
Waking up for school might be difficult. Here are a few tips that you might find useful.
- Tell your child several time a day that he or she has to wake up and get up out of bed earlier than usual. Repeat these words several times every day, so that the words sink into their subconscious mind.
- When your child goes to bed at night, tell him or her several times that he/she has to wake up at a certain hour in the morning.
- Use an alarm clock for yourself and for the child.
- In the morning, lift up the curtains or open the shutters, so that daylight gets into the room.
- If you are at home, go several times to your child’s room to ensure that he or she has got up. If you are at work, call your child several times, until you are certain that he or she is out of bed.
- Often, parents shout at their child to get up, from another room. Don’t do that. No one likes to be shouted at, especially in the morning, when still in bed. This can raise an automatic inner resistance.
- It is not enough just to wake up on time, your child needs to get out of bed too, wash up and dress on time.
- A good breakfast would o good to your child’s health, energy level and state of mind.
The process of teaching your children to wake up earlier is a process that might take several days, so it best to start it a few days before school starts.
“Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it.”
– Richard Whately
“This a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before.”
– Maya Angelou.
