My little ones have NO trouble getting out of bed. I wish they’d STAY there. But my school-aged kid…a different story. So here’s what my husband does (he’s got the better voice for it…) – he stomps loudly into my son’s room and roars “Fee Fi Fo Fum, I smell the toes of my oldest son.” And my son giggles and hides under the covers, dad tickles, and then he gets out of bed.
Works EVERY time. If the little ones are still abed, they demand it as well. As if they’re ever still abed

My kids are always up before me. My twins have always been early birds. They’re up before dawn. They usually wake up and head to the playroom. When their brother wakes up, he joins them if the baby isn’t awake (he shares a room with her) or if she is awake, he stays and plays with her. Once she starts calling for me, I have to get up.
I am a night owl. My kids, not so much.

This is so awesomely true!! I laughed out loud (notice how I spelled it out, does that get me extra weighting points?). As for getting up in the morning, we also do the TV and have to time it properly to leave at the end of the episode so we make the bus. I have found that, while I want to let my oldest sleep in to maximize her sleep, she needs more transition time and I’m trying to honor that. Keep up the great blog, I love reading about your family’s Jewish journey. p.s. we love Rabbi Joe Black!

Acorn is a naturally early riser and gets up with the sun and gets me out of bed. Homeschooling means Froggy gets to sleep in until she is naturally ready to wake up. We snuggle and sing Modeh Ani together before getting out of bed and starting the day.

My girls have also always been early risers – me not so much. Shalom is also an early riser so he has always done the early am shift, b’fast, dressed etc. I can sleep a tiny bit more. Now Hannah (my oldest) is starting to sleep later – still enough time to get dressed eat etc, though sometimes we have to wake her up and boy is she grumpy. I usually let them watch a little tv after Hannah gets home from kindergarten in the late afternoon, but not always. I like to bookend idea. We also went out trick or treating but not for so long and they didn’t want to eat much of the candy when they got home. Actually, they wanted to eat rice cakes, I’m not sure my girls are genetically connected to me – lol.

I wake my 8 year-old son up with gentle, “time to get up”s, and he usually does in five minutes or so. His morning routine involves pulling up his covers so they are relatively neat, getting on his clothes, making breakfast, sitting on the pot for ten minutes (terminal constipation–though I think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel after years of this), and doing his piano practice. I can’t imagine where we’d fit in TV! AND: he’s a happy waker-upper. We are blessed.
Barb

I have the book (so no need to put me in the giveaway!) but I wanted to ask: Do you have a little Pippi Longstocking in your house? I am seriously wondering if there is some Pippi in the water, ’cause this year I saw FOUR Pippis. Last year and every previous year since I’ve had children: NONE. Whassup with that??

How timely – it was definitely a boker lo tov in this household today. There’s been some bedtime resistance around here and it makes for nonhappy, rushed mornings. For the most part it’s the little guy who wakes me up and not the other way around, so my challenge is keeping him focused on morningtime stuff. For us the trick is having just the right amount of time for all our routine stuff, but not so much that he gets engrossed in play. Usually the prospect of nibbling on something in the car serves as good incentive to get out the door – raisins especially.

Ha, our kids usually wake us up in the morning! Our two early risers aren’t school-age yet, and they can’t wait to tackle the day. Ah, to be that young and optimistic again…

I just go into the room and, while vigorously shaking the bed, I shout “Earthquake! Earthquake!” Gets ‘em up every time.

DS is a teenager, so he is the hardest to get out of bed. Luckily during the week he knows he has to be out of the door at 7:40 or he’ll miss his bus, so he rolls out of bed on his own around 7:15 via a loud alarm that repeats several times. Weekends he is asleep till about 11AM
DD (7 yrs old) was blessed to be they type who wakes up in a great mood hungry for breakfast! I wake her with kisses and she joins me about 5 minutes later when her breakfast is ready. (She eats in PJ’s so as to keep the school clothes relatively clean…at least until she steps out of the door!)
Eileen

How do I get my kid up in the morning?
Ha! I wish.
I get woken up early every morning when he flings his door open and pads to the potty, then comes and climbs into bed with us. If it’s before 5am, I send him back. Otherwise, ugh, I’m up.