Loud 2.5 yr old ignoring sun - how do I get him to play quietly?!

[LovelyLilyandJack]

This might just be an age thing, but I'm after some BTDT advice or ideas for my 2.5 yr old.  He's an early riser  (about 6 - 6.15 usually), and he's very loud as soon as he wakes.  He usually cries, and then starts shouting "Jack Jack awake now!", or right now "I eat now", which is a new one.  This morning he's been out of bed wandering around upstairs twice, which is also new. He has a sun clock and until today waited in bed for it. He understands it cos as soon as it's up he shouts "sun's awake now". He's just very loud in the meantime and wakes up my daughter.  Plus it's not very nice starting every day listening to crying and shouting.

I'm always consistent with the sun so I don't know if I can do more there.  It's set for 6.30 at the moment.  I've spoken to him in and outside of the moment about keeping quiet until the sun is up. He has a bedside light and toys I put out for him when I check on him at night so he can play in the morning. Sometimes he does for 5 minutes but often he ignores them. He always switches his light on so he definitely knows they're there.

Any other ideas or things to try? I guess I haven't tried rewards yet - do you think he's old enough for that? Or is this just an age thing? I think my daughter always woke crying at this age too and grew out of it at some point.  I live in hope....

[cath~]

I've not BTDT exactly but I'm not sure rewards would help   I feel it's probably an age/personality thing. 

Other than trying different toys/books/etc, the only thing that I can think of to do would be to shift his whole routine later so he's not waking so early.

Or, if he is hungry, what about leaving a small snack for him to nibble on?

Maybe some one else has some other ideas though.

[michaeljacknnugg]

I'm afraid we've never really solved this one, DS is with us as soon as he wakes whatever we do. The only thing that helped was having a friend over and going downstairs together in the morning (they are 7.5).

Would you consider breakfast in his room? Things like brioche that make very little mess might work. And a few books, or cd to listen to?

[Tweakster]

How many hours is he sleeping/what's his bedtime? - thinking along the same lines as cath actually to make a shift if possible. Though, it's probably just his make up I'm afraid (I have an early riser too, it has gotten better at 5/6 but it took a looooong time).  I don't know if at 2.5yo rewards would work but you could try some kind of chart that is visual enough for him to understand what he's going to get if he manages to stay in his room until the sun. 

I agree with leaving him something...like perhaps some dry cereal or something small in a bowl to keep him going until you are willing to get up.

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Thanks everyone, I might try the snack idea. I'm not sure a routine shift would work - he's an early-to-bed-early-to-rise type,  plus he has about the same sleep in 24hrs as my 5 yr old  (very LSN boy), so he'd end up later to bed than her if I shifted BT - he tends to go straight to sleep and wake early and she tends to play for a bit and wake later. I don't think that would go down very well    I think I'll try the snack option, keep talking to him about it and hope he grows out of it!