Sleeping In

When my son wanted to get up early, I told him no getting up until mom says it's time and then at night I would let him pick a favorite toy, book, puzzle, whichever, that he would want to play with quietly in the morning and usually he fell back to sleep....I was lucky, he always stayed in bed and "usually" fell back to sleep.
Also try putting him to bed later at night, you can have quiet time before his bedtime, read a book ar just talk about things

There may be nothing you can do. Some kids just have their own time rhythm. So for actually getting him to sleep longer... He may just not need to right now. But you can try to train him to not get up until later. We always use the sun as a judge of when kids should get up... :-) But then in the summer they can get up earlier and in the winter it seems like they are sitting in their rooms until noon. :-)
Does he share a room with any other kids? My 3 share a room and I have noticed that while my oldest would sleep until 9 am, our second would sleep until 8, and our youngest only sleeps till 7... Which means that when the youngest gets up he wakes up the next one who wakes up the next one... Then we are all up.
He may alter his sleeping schedule a bit when he starts preschool and his nap is shorter or nonexistant and his brain and body are really stimulated thru out the day.

I try to look at my kids naturally waking up early as a blessing. ( If you call 7 am early.)I can avoid the forcing a kid to wake up to go to school because they naturally wake up around the time I would have to wake them up... At least until our oldest hits middle school probibly. lol

Um... you don't.

If your lad is done sleeping, he's done. It is attractive to make people sleep longer than they need to, but it's not possible to achieve (without drugs).

If you find it's too early for you, you can set up your house so he has access to safe, non-messy food and quiet, self-entertaining activities.

If you find that it is simply not safe for him to be awake and alone, but you're not getting sufficient sleep, I respectfully submit that you are staying up too late at night for your sleep needs.

I have noticed that children very, very rarely suffer from a lack of sleep, even while their mothers are nearly dying of exhaustion. It strikes me that one of the people in the scenario have it all figured out, while the other isn't... hmmm.

E., yes, we need that morning sleep, you can put them to bed later, like 10 ? but that depends on when you go to sleep also, or you can see if they are mature enough to not wake you up and not get into trouble in the morning, like if there is a show they love, and will sit for, i would let my kids turn tv on in the morning, after a bit if you sleep in too long they come in and wake yah, ahahah so cute, enjoy life, and have fun, even now to this day, i have my kids in bed before i do, and it gives me and my husband our time together, D. s

I never put my kids to bed that early unless I was prepared for them to get up really early, but not all kids need the same amount of sleep.

Ten hours + a nap is enough sleep for a 3 year old. My son stopped taking naps before age 2. I kept him up til 10 p.m. so he would sleep in til almost 9 a.m. BUT he was my first and I had no child care business or other children at that time. Cherish the morning hours with your son since he has to share you with other children most of the day. Have some quiet things to do together if you have time - take 5 minutes and read him a story - just the two of you. I wouldn't expect him to sleep more than he already is - and I think it's great he goes to bed at 8 p.m.!

That's very early at my house too. My daughters natural rhythm is 8am. SO I'll have to work harder when she's in full day school.
I try to change the way I think about things I can't change. So perhaps if he's going to get up at 6 anyway you could both do yoga together. You can find a cute kids yoga that calls the poses animal names to make it funny. When I do yoga in the am I find I'm more awake, and have more energy than if I slept late. You could use that time to get ready for your child care day.
But I also remember how tired I felt when my baby was a baby. So good luck to you. A. H

My kids are 7, 6 and almost 2. They are all up at or before 6:30 everyday and have since birth. People have said to adjust bedtime, take away nap, etc. For me, it only made them cranky and tired which further disrupted their sleep cycle. It may just be his circadian rhythm. I have learned to adjust my sleep around them and just expect to get up early. My husband and I have 2-3 hours of alone time each night and then we can snuggle with the kids before school in the morning because we have the time. Pretty soon we will be begging them to get out of bed before they miss the bus!!

C.

This is an idea I heard from a friend. Put a light in his room with a timmer on it and tell him that he has to stay in his bed until his magic light turns on. At first set it a few minutes after he gets up, then gradually make it later. Give him some rules, like he can read or play something quiet.

Most 3 year olds only need 11 hours of sleep - which he is getting (10 hours at night, 1 hour at nap). You can't force more sleep - the only thing you could do is adjust when he gets that 11 hours total.

Make him a clock and put a big red sticker on the number 7, and another red sticker on the hour hand - and teach him to play by himself until the 2 red stickers are on top of each other.

You could plan out activities for the morning that he can do himself. Measure out cereal in a bowl; measure out milk in a special cup and put it on bottom shelf of fridge, then teach him how to make his own breakfast with that. Then maybe set some activity like sticker books out and for him do do by himself.

I saw this nightlight that is a moon when they are supposed to be sleeping (very dim) and a sunshine when they can wake up in a magazine. The link is: http://www.goodnitelite.com/. I haven't tried it yet, but it might help. You just keep setting it 5 minutes longer every couple days until you get to the time you want. Then, maybe you can just tell him if he gets up and sees it is not time yet, then he can get a book and read quitely until it is. I need to order mine and try it too. My 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year olds are both 6 AMers most of the time too! But, I am also thankful that they still take a good nap. I sometimes use that time to rejuvenate from getting up early with them. And, I usually turn in as early as I can at night too. I find that I have the most energy in the morning so I end up getting more done on days they wake up earlier anyway.

Hi E.,
My girls (5&3) don't usually wake up super early, but on the nights that they have stayed up too late, I set an alarm clock to soft music. It doesn't wake them if they aren't ready, but if they are already awake, they know they need to stay in bed (reading or playing quietly) until the music turns on. They may get up to go potty, but they need to get back in bed. This has really worked well for us.
Hope it helps!
A.

My husband and I recently pushed our 20 month olds bedtime from 8-9:30. No more getting up before 7! Lately, she's been waking up around 8. I can finally have some of my own quiet time. I really didn't want to do it, but she is sleepier at bedtime, which makes it easier to get her to sleep in her new toddler bed.

I wish I knew the answer to this!! My 3(almost 4) year old is the same way. Even if he goes to bed at 10PM, he still gets up at 6 or 6:30AM. He usually (not always) takes a 1-2 hour nap after lunch also, and if he doesn't he has to go to bed by 7PM or he is really cranky and falling asleep. During the week is isn't a big deal for him to get up this early because my husband and I both work, but on the weekends it would be nice for him to sleep until at least 7 or 8AM. Sometimes on the weekends I just make him go back into his room and play quietly or lay in his bed.