Advice Needed, please.

Since they're doing this at night, have you thought about putting an alarm on their door? That may not stop them right away, but at least it will wake you up and then maybe you can redirect them back to bed. What do they say when you talk to them about it in the morning?

I second the alarm. It gives you a chance to respond immediately and let you know what they are up to.Also, I would be concerned that they ARE getting up this early at this age. I would be concerned that they aren't getting enough sleep at night and try and figure out why. It might be worth putting a baby monitor in their room at night and tracking how long it takes them to fall asleep, when they wake up and if they go back to sleep at all. There are so many reasons they could be waking in the middle of the night. I think your best best for decent sleep would be to find out what that is.

Door alarms. The kind that chimes when the door is opened. You can get one at a hardware store. They are old enough to talk to about it also. There needs to be consequences for their bad behavior and rewards for good behavior. You decide what those consequences are, but it can be anything like no TV time, no candy, no whatever and good behavior gets extra TV time, extra playtime, etc. When you put the chime on the door, you will probably spend a few nights getting up several times and putting hem back in bed, but eventually, they will get the point and stop. I would remove everything from the room except for the beds. This way, they can;t get up and just play or create havoc in the room. Good behavior gets one thing at a time back into the room.

THANK YOU for all the good ideas. I am going today and buying a door alarm. We have a baby monitor and will be putting that in the room also.I am concerned too about why they wake up in the night like this. Today, one fd meets with her therapist and I intend to address this.To answer "sadoyle"'s question about what they say when we talk to them about it... They mainly give us "I don't know" answers or blame the other one. This morning, the older fd admitted to waking up the younger one before starting their mission of destruction.

I have a couple of ideas. They may seem a little harsh but it may help. 1. If they are doing this each night, stay up. Don't let them know you are awake, but wait for them to get up and address it right away. It would probably shock them to see you waiting and it may make them think twice about it next time. 2. Wake them up early. If they are getting up in the night, don't allow them any time to sleep in. If they wake up normally around 7ish for school, start getting them up at 6am - if they complain about being tired... tough, tell them that if they stayed in bed and went to sleep then they wouldn't be. Also consider letting them stay up a little later. If they are going to bed later and getting up earlier then they will need the sleep. Once they calm down then things can go back to normal. 3. If they are making a mess, make them clean it up. It will be less fun if they know that it will be waiting for them the next day to tidy, especially if it cuts into play time etc. Is there away of putting them into seperate bedrooms for a little while. Since the older one woke the younger up seperate bedrooms could prevent you having two little monsters running around. The baby monitors are a great idea, not only because it will let you know when they are up etc but also you will be able to here what they are talking about. The older one might be having nightmares or something which are causing her to wake. Likewise it could all be for attention. Having it addressed in therapy is worthwhile. Rewarding good behaviour is really important. If they stay in bed, maybe let them have a toy back in their room. If they're naughty take it away again. The problem with taking everything is that they have nothing more to loose and although it gets boring... if they are awake and playing in their room for a little while, its better then creating havoc elsewhere in the house. Giving them toys back will show trust and they will probably prefer having their things back in their room . Stay strong and consistant with them and you will get there in the end. It may mean a few sleepless nights but if you can help solve the problem it will be better for them, you and their future foster families.

Some children need less sleep than others, especially those with ADHD or who have bad dreams as a result of their past experiences. Some have an internal alarm that gets them up early (we had a five year old that was usually up between 5-5:30A.M, only one time at 3a.m. which is when the rules came into place.). We had to set ground rules. 1. No waking up the other kids, 2. You can use a flash light to look at books, play quietly with a doll, stuffed animal, etch a sketch (kept in a little bin by the bed), 3. You stay in bed until a grown up tells you to get up unless you have to potty, 4. No talking louder than a whisper. We then laid out the consequenses of breaking one of the rules. And we made it known that if Momma gets woken up before the clock read 6:30a.m. for something other than a sick kid, scary monster, bad dream or other emergency she was not going to be happy all day long and if Momma was not happy no one was going to be happy because they were going to have to help with all the chores Momma was going to be too tired to do all by herself and she was going to be too tired to allow noisy TV and suppervising Webkins on the computer or playing board games before bed. Only one time did the rules get broken and never again...