How Do You Get YOUR Kids Ready for the New Schedule?

We don't wake them up any earlier until school starts, but we DO send them to bed earlier for a week. That early bedtime seems to help them to adjust their wake up clocks more easily.

We started the 'going to bed earlier thing' this week. The 13 yr old knows when he has to get up, so it's on him when school starts.

Ah let them sleep. They will adjust. Necessity necessitates!

I have to agree with your kids. I have never done the 'start waking up early a couple of weeks before school' - what a waste of the last couple of weeks of summer. Kids only do what they are allowed to do. So, if they won't get up on time............

I used to do what you're doing but after several years I decided it just wasn't worth it.
They adjust pretty quickly after the first few days.
Lucky for us the first week starts on a Wednesday so it's a short one, which helps, and of course there's not much homework until week two so it all works out :-)

you really don't need to 'teach' kids to get up early. when you have to get up, you get up. practice doesn't make it any easier.
it's really one of the complaints about homeschooling that makes me scratch my head. people think that kids HAVE to be trained to get up or they'll never hold a job. it really doesn't work that way. i got up every day to go to school, and still hate to get up early when i have to. my poor dh has to get up at 3am 5 days a week. he's never 'learned' how to be okay with it. but he does it.
my homeschooled kids got to sleep in almost every day, but when we had something to do that involved an early start, we all got up and moaned and complained and got on with it. both my kids are doing just fine with college and adult jobs.
let your kids enjoy their last week of summer. seriously.
khairete
S.

I don't!
I just throw them into it. Which means that we are a bit cranky the first week, but after that they figure it out.
In fact, we are going camping for four days and then they start school the next day when we get back.
Kids are resiliant and I am not going to wake them up at 7am the last week or two of summer.
L.

I don't get them ready. They will adjust all on their own once school starts.

Instead of making them wake up earlier, you can opt... to have them go to bed earlier.

In the meantime, getting them up earlier in anticipation of next week, is not going to help. Especially if they are going to bed late or always go to bed late.
All year, they will moan and groan about having to wake up earlier this year. Probably.
Unless they do get enough sleep the night before.

Keep it up, M...... you must be doing something right for them to complain, right?

And yes.. I did that same thing, too...... and my kids hated it too!

My girls have had to wake up early every day this summer (besides on our vacation) as I work and my husband works so not much has changed from their school schedule. But they do have to get up a half hour early to catch the bus this year. I haven't started but will prob will next week. I doubt they will notice the difference. I think the key is to stick to an early bedtime too.

Oh wanted to add I've read you should stop all electronics after dinner too, so it will help them go to sleep at night.

We put the kids to bed a bit earlier the last few nights and didn't let them sleep in as long. We didn't wake the sks in HS at 5:30AM before they had to be up that early, but we did strongly suggest they ease off their nocturnal ways the week prior.

I think I am lucky, at 12 and 14 they are old enough to not bother with arguments. They know damn well without a shift in schedule towards the end they will not be able to get up when they need to.

If there is any question as to why I simply explain, this is the price you pay for the level of freedom you are allowed over the summer. In other words if you like staying up till midnight and sleeping it till noon, you get two weeks of boot camp. They don't seem to mind.

Two weeks before school started they had to get up at nine on weekdays, one week it went to seven. They have been back for a week and I have had little trouble getting the oldest up at six and the next at 6:30. Heck they even did it at their dad's house!

My daughter gets on the bus at 710, however, was usually up by this time during the summer so getting her up at 630 is not a huge ordeal as long as she's in bed/asleep no later than 830. I prefer 8!! When it's later, she's cranky in the mornings. I set out all clothes the night before. I get myself ready then get her up. She can have breakfast or get dressed first. As long as she's doing something (eating or getting dressed) I'll turn on a cartoon. I find this is motivating for her because she knows if she just lays there, it gets turned off!

We did not starting putting my daughter to bed earlier until the night before school. She adjusted very well. She's in 1st grade.

Our school starts on Weds Sept 4th. Next week, we start our 'regular' bedtime schedule, which means Kiddo will go to bed a half-hour earlier. Starting next Weds, I'll be resuming my routine of getting up at 6 for a quiet cup of tea before the 6:30 Kiddo wakeup and our regular morning rituals. We walk to school, which starts at 8:45. Starting next Friday, the following Monday and Tues I think we'll actually do the walk, then mosey off to find a coffee shop for a little treat. (Someone else suggested this on different thread a couple weeks ago and I just thought it was a great idea.)

There's something to be said for slipping back into a structured morning!
(I have to say, I do feel for the families who will be celebrating High Holy Days during the first few days of school. I used to organize care at a synagogue for those services-- those kids are going to be wiped!)

By the way, he is starting first grade in a new part of the school, etc. All kids are different; mine does well with a few rehearsals before 'the real thing'. Just can't wait to find out who his teacher is!

We are going to family camp next week, the week before school starts. Wake up at camp is actually a little earlier than they have to get up for school, so that should do it. They start school on a Wednesday, so I will get them up early on Tuesday, and early to bed on Tuesday as well.

I also try to get our son up earlier in preparation for the school year.
A little grousing now is better than dealing with a grumpy stressed out excited nervous kid the first day of school.
Try to have something fun lined up for early in the day for that last week of summer - trip to the zoo/aquarium/beach/pool/etc.
For that they'll get up with minimal complaining plus the morning activity helps them get tired enough to get to sleep a little earlier.

Depends on the age of the kids. When mine were younger, I did as you described...started easing them into it at least a week before school started. Mine are now teens...and I let them make their own choice...and one is choosing to get up early this week and the other is not. Monday will be a rude awakening for him...but after a few days of getting up early...he'll be back into the swing of things.

My girls get up early (or before me) anyway. Their first day of school is today so I set their alarm clocks but they got up before the alarm. It's just a matter of getting them out the door in time without outfit changes! I thought maybe I'd do a trial run yesterday but I didn't, I wanted to savor the last day of sleeping in, which means up at 8:30-9:00 LOL. Now my girls are in school (youngest started kinder this year) and I'm all by my lonesome.

We did not change to begin with.

Depending on their age they should have a choice in the matter, but we too prepared for school and eating schedules and other changes the week before. There was resistance but I think overall it helped. This was his first full day at school. I think if the kids are in high school then I would cut them some slack, but younger than that there would not have been too much change to their schedule to begin with.

I used to talk a good game about this but we never really did anything. My three boys all get up fairly early anyway - the oldest (15) has a job so he's been getting up at 6:30 or 7 all summer and normally wakes up at 8 AM on weekends, the younger two are up by 7 or 8 anyway and have been going to day camps this summer so things have been pretty structured for them.

The only late sleeper is my 15-year-old daughter, who will sleep until 11 AM but on school days, gets up at 5:30 to do her hair and make up. She'll manage herself just fine when she needs to.

I started moving bed time back a few minutes at a time about 2 weeks ago. I didn't have to wake her up, because with the right bed time, she wakes on her own. Today is our first day of school; she went to bed at 9:00 and was bright-eyed and bushy tailed when she woke up at 7:15. Perfect time for her to get up.

I usually watch how she is in the a.m. If I see that she's getting up around the right time on her own, I know I have set the correct bedtime. If she's getting up a bit early, I'll let her stay up a few minutes later. Too tired at wake-up and I move it forward a bit. I do this the first week or so of school until I find that I have it just right.