4-Yr Old Waking Whole Family TOO EARLY

Check out the OK To Wake glow alarm clock on-line. It's amazing!!! It glows green or purple to let your child know that it is OR ISN'T time to wake up. Amazing.

My 5 and 8 year olds were doing that on the weekends so we got them a clock for their room. They also have a DVD player in there. We tell them they cannot come out of their room except to use the bathroom before a certain time (obviously this is for waking up for the day...if they have a bad dream or something in the middle of the night, our door is always open) and if they are up earlier than that, they can read some books, play with some toys, or watch a movie. It's worked perfectly for us.

God bless you W.,
Sounds to me like your son is asserting his independence. That is a good thing. You realize that. He is simply growing up and will need to be independent from you. In order to break the dependence the pendulum has to swing too far the other way.
People often say the "terrible two's" but I found that I was more taken back & without wisdom when they turned 4. Key to being w/o wisdom is prayer of course. "If any one lacks wisdom....." right?
I did also find acknowledging that they were growing up helped them to handle the emotions of it all without loosing it altogether. I let them make the decisions they could, and made them dependent on what they could not. Dressing was their choice, food was not. Every thing that I let them do independently had a "Mom must still do" consequence. That worked especially well with the son that had a hard time with consequence.
As far as sleep goes, I can't be the expert. Two of mine slept, two didn't. People say "put them to bed later" At 4, he had to stay on his bed and be quiet til I was up.
He slept 2 hours in 24 about the time he was 5, and it stayed that way. We had to do something.
God bless you and your lovely family
Lean not on your own understand.
They all have a difficult period and I do believe it is easier when that period of time is when they are young.
Trust in the Lord.
K. --- SAHM married 38 years--- adult children 37, coach, sweet as could be, now we hear by him only by email, hyper-independent; 33, my difficult child from every perspective, now lawyer, married, son will be a year old soon, still doesn't sleep but our dil loves it, as he is up with the baby; twins 19, easier than the single above, preteens were difficult, now at different colleges, on dean's lists and succeeding well after homeschooling.

For about $5 at home depot or lowes you can get a handy little device that you can plug anything into and set the times you want power to either go to it or not. Alot of people use them when they go on vacation to have a light come on and off every day at a certain time so it looks like someone is there. But you can plug a soft light or nightlight into it and tell him if he wakes up and it's lit he can get up, if not, to go back to sleep. This way, there's no thought involved. Making a 4 year old try to process the numbers on the clock, or even just process "does green mean get up or is it purple", forces them to wake up to a certain degree and think! If they just have to process "lit or not lit" it should be a lot easier for them to roll over and go back to sleep if it's not lit yet. Good luck!

if you don't already have a clock in his room, get one and put it in there...our rule has always been...you can't get out of bed till seven, zero,zero...of course once my three year old slept til 730 and when I checked on him at 745 he was crying because the clock wasn't moving to seven,zero,zero...so we changed it til...7 has to be the first # :) but for starters give him the big boy task of staying quietly in bed until the time you want him up.

Dear MOM,

Sorry to say but this is pretty normal,

I have a TV that I keep on Sprout TV or NOGGIN,
this way if he wakes up he goes in and turns in on himself.

I give him a sippy cup and a snack ( like dry cereal)
and go back to sleep

Then I go back to bed, ( I don't usually fall asleep because I need to listen to them but atleast I am resting.)

If it was a week day I would just get up early.
Or pull him into my bed to relax.

Another option I have is to ask my 13 year old to wake and keep and eye on them while I get a few extra minutes sleep,
But that doesn't always work either.

LAst little tid bit, If he is waking early frequently, you might, put him to bed a few minutes later, OR tell him to read a book quietly to himself, The only problem is how long would you expect him to do this? and what mischeif could he get into in the mean time.

M

I don't agree with the mom's that say put him to bed a little later. I found that my daughter slept better and longer if she went to bed on time than if she was up late (even a 1/2 hour). I do like the ideas of using a nightlight on a timer or the purple/green light to let him know if he can get you or not. Also, having a few simple toys or a tv or dvd that he can operate himself would help.
You can try crawling into his bed (if he's in at least a twin) so that way you are resting and the rest of the house is sleeping.
When my daughter was about 3 she was fascinated with the garbage trucks. In our town they are not supposed to start picking up trash until after 6am, but sometimes they would push it and start as early as 4 - 4:30. My daughter would hear the truck, wake up and go running for the window to watch them. This eventually led to some angry phone calls to the mayor's office :D
Good luck with the sleep issue, the "mommy do it" issue is not much fun either.