How to Get 6 Year Old to Cooperate in the Morning

LOL! I'm only laughing b/c my post came right after you posted your and it's about the same thing. I'm in the same boat with you mama! I started to put my lil' man down at 7pm as of last nite, but the whole.. not getting dressed, not eating.. attitude.. etc I FEEL U!! I will check back on your post to see what kind of suggestions are out there. I don't have any suggestions except that we put our kids down like at 4pm..lol Good Luck b/c I know that it's tough :)

Good Morning- You mentioned that she has to go to bed much earlier on the days before she has school. Maybe this could be her costistent bed time (if I understand your post). She will probably get comfortable with that routine.

If she doesn't get dressed, send her to school in her pajamas. If she doesn't comb her hair, let her go as is. She will not want to spend the day in pajamas if her friends are dressed appropriately. Just put her coat on and shove her out the door. :-) You'll only have to do it once.
Give her an alarm clock. Set her clothes out the night before. Let her get herself up. She is a big girl. She can do it.
Switch the feeding of the animals to dinner time. You do breakfast.
YMMV
LBC

I think you just need to figure out what works for her - because it will be different for each kid. I've figured out that early bedtime punishments work for my 5 year old. He is VERY slow moving in the morning and I was getting frustrated telling him to do the same thing 10 times, which would eventually end with me yelling at him to do it another 2-3 times. Now, I ask him to do something (i.e. go get dressed, you have 10 minutes), he'll get one reminder if he gets off task (go get dressed, you now have 8 minutes - or early bed time), and if I have to ask/remind him a 3rd time 15 minutes come off his bed time. He hates having to go to bed early, so it has been working very well. Some kids respond to sticker charts, some to positive reinforcement, some to toys being taken away....the hard part is just finding what works for yours.

I agree with Ladybug - she doesn't get ready/eat breakfast/etc that's her problem. Again, I think that you'll only have to do it once.

However, hopefully you won't have to get to that point. We made a "get ready" chart for my daughter. It had "get dressed," "brush hair," "brush teeth," and "shoes and socks" on it. She's responsible for checking the chart and ticking off all the parts. If she does it for a week, she gets 4 quarters on Friday. It's been a good motivator and does cut down on the nagging, which I hate.

Some kids just need time in the morning. My son is like this. He really likes a good 1.5 hours of awake time before he heads out the door. Perhaps you can try waking your daughter at 6 so she has a little time to lie in bed, get dressed a bit more leisurely, etc. Yes, she'd be losing that sleep time, but it might very well be worth it if the morning is less of a fight.

Finally, I find it helps both my kids if I tell them the night before that we are going to have to hustle in the morning to get out the door, and that we won't have time for play. It helps them to get up in the right mindset (normally).

Good luck! Think of it as good practice for high school : )

I know this sounds weird, but sometimes my middle daughter (9) will go to bed in the clothes she'll wear the next day. She doesn't care if she's wrinkled and neither do I. She's done this for years. It's not every day, just every once in awhile.

What worked for us was sticker charts. You can find free ones here:

http://www.latitudes.org/behavioral_charts.html

Our middle daughter accumulates points for getting stickers each week. At the end of the month, depending on how many points she received, she'll get $5 to spend how she sees fit. It's really worked wonders for us and I didn't think it would work at all! We got a booklet of 1000 stickers at Walgreens. We also bought a clipboard that can hang up and put that on her door with her chart. It's one of the first things she sees in the morning and one of the last things she sees at night.

Hope that helps!

Lay her clothes out at night. Physically remove her from bed, put her clothes on. Chores on those mornings can wait until after school.