The "not so" Morning Person

RO is adept at cleaning after himself. Right after he comes back from school, puts away his lunch bag, his coat in the closet, shoes in the shoe stand and his pre-school work in the drawer. For most part, he puts away the toys he plays with as well. This was easy to accomplish, as I rewarded him a coin in his piggy back for every clean up activity. We continued this for a whole month, until it became his second nature. The fun part for him was putting the coins in his piggy bank. He did not mind if the coins were cents or chucky cheese coins. Additionally it helped that the Montessori system he attends re-enforces this aspect.

But mornings are another story. He has difficulty waking up at 7AM and getting ready to school. In order to reduce my AM stress, this is what Ro and I do every school morning.

7 AM – I Switch on the lights and this kind of stops the sleeping process for him.

7:15 – Wake him up and he gets right into the shower. That wakes him up completely.

7:25 – I brush his teeth and put on his clothes

7:35 – He eats his breakfast while I get ready

8:10 – We are out of the house.

We have a sheet as in this picture and he gets a smile face on his sheet, if he does the activity without whining/crying. We did this for a whole week and he loved earning his smiles. We are off to doing it again this week.