How to stop a 5 year old...

[supergolden88]

From coming in at 6am (on a good day! sometimes 5am sometimes 4am) and waking you up to tell you she wants to get up.

And even after you have told her it is too early, go back to bed, yes you can read quietly, she comes in again and again...

She goes to bed around 8.15 so it's not like she oversleeps. I know that she gets overly emotional and tantrumy sometimes in the day because she is sooo tired. And she has school to deal with as well.

After being up all night again with teething baby my patience with her is running very very wafer thin

[Ole]

My sister in law had a stairgate at the door of her children's room so that they could help themselves to books and toys but could not get out of the room and wake everybody up.

[gwod]

Magic Bunny clock and bribery.

[supergolden88]

looking into gro-clock sleep trainer

now if only we could retrain the baby as well. He was up and completely awake for a couple of hours last night

[Pickle]

At 5 she is old enough to understand. I might be from the "mean Mummy" school of thinking, but I would, after explaining that she's not to come out of her bedroom until you go to her in the morning, take favourite things away. Then when she does as she's been told to do, give them back. This works brilliantly for my friend with her 4.5 year old, who is obsessed by her party dresses... the threat of having one taken away is all it takes!

My son (4.5) know he's not to come out of his bedroom in the morning until he hears the shower, and my 3 year old daughter (if she wakes early, which isn't that often), will sit and read books until we go to her.

[supergolden88]

We are already employing that method whenever she bursts into theatrical tears because she is not getting her way - eg. when she is losing at Wii. This from a girl who never tantrumed as a toddler - we are getting delayed tantrums.

I am going to get the clock and then have the talk again. She can be good, sometimes she wakes, turns her light on and 'reads' in bed. This morning though she was in 3 or 4 times with flimsy excuses.

[carclubresearch]

If it happens more in summer than it does in winter (as it does with my five year old) it might be worth investing in a black out blind to make sure the early sunrise isn't waking her up.

[tor]

Another vote for the gro clock and bribery - our eldest is often awake well before 7am but he knows to make minimal noise until the 'sun comes up' on the clock which is set for 7.15am. He got the hang of this when he was about 4 years old and since then we've been enjoying peaceful mornings. (My youngest will sleep until he gets woken up by everyone else - don't you just want to bottle that and give it to every toddler?!)

[on_the_hill]

I will also suggest the Gro Clock. We've used it successfully for over a year with our 5 year old, after a long spell of waking up between 5-6 am.

To get him enthusiastic about waiting for the sun to come out we gave him a sticker every morning he had waited for it to appear before he came into our room. He was promised a treat once he had completed 7 sticker. It has worked really well since, even if he gets ups early, he just 'reads' in his bed. It has been a life saver for us!

Good luck!