What's the best way to wake a 7 year old in the morning?

[anorak]

Mine doesn't fall asleep easily at night and is often groggy in the morning - he's a night bird like me and I feel sorry for him so I wake him gently. But sometimes he takes that as a signal that he doesn't really need to bother.

How to do wake your child and how effective is it? Is there a way that everyone's happy with?

ds (nearly 9) is like yours. We have a "duvet hug" - I sit on the end of his bed and he lumps over with his duvet & pillow & things & gets a good squeeze till he comes to terms with the day. I build in an extra 10 mins for this in our morning time budget - it's SO worth it.

dd (7.5) needs nothing more than a "Hello Poppet it's morning!" and she bounces out.

with kisses until he sniggers

Is the room dark overnight? Might be worth getting black out blinds so he settles earlier, then open them once it is dark, so the sumlight wakes him gradually.

Obviously that doesn't work as well in winter with shorter days...

Oh how lovely! My DS likes me to rub his back till he's properly awake but he's taken to sleeping on the top bunk now, and I can't reach.

PotPourri it's dark when he goes to bed. It's not that, he just finds it difficult to drop off to sleep, just like me - or at least I was like that till I became an exhausted mother!

i have always gone in, opened curtains to let in the light, and say "you can have 5 more minutes". Then go back and make sure they are at least sitting up...it takes a couple of times of going in or shouting "Breakfast's ready", before they come through to the kitchen for breakfast. They are 10 and nearly 9 now.
At age 7, I remember I would sometimes carry them through (we are in a flat) and we'd have a cuddle on the sofa to wake up properly. Ah, memories! would break my back if I tried to carry them now

Bribery. I give DS (only 5, but the same problem) a gentle wakeup and a 5 minute warning, but if reminded that there is a star on offer if he gets up without complaining all week, he generally then gets himself up OK.

Alternatively one of his (many) cuddly animals will "bounce" him with demands to know what DS is going to do that day / threats to pinch his uniform and go to school themselves / anything else I can think of!

We set the alarm for an hour earlier than we need, DH lifts a still sleeping DS from his bed and we all snuggle down for another ten minutes or so. Then DH and I start a discussion about what we have on in work that day, DS invariably joins in with ooh cross country or football or whatever he might be doing.

The waking up is not really the problem, it is the stress of trying to get him to get dressed without doing roly polys on the bed, throwing socks up in the air and catching them.

Great ideas here - stuff that I've done in the past and forgotten about it. I'm so exhausted in the mornings myself that I can hardly think straight these days and not inventive enough to think of toys bouncing him for example, but now you've reminded me...

Glass of cold water over their head usually does the trick

I always give ds a '10 minute' alert!

Anorak - toys bouncing him is a "good Mummy" day. A "bad Mummy" day is when I shoot into his room, whip the duvet off him and say "come on, we're late already" - Mediocre Mummy days involve offers of stars