Daylight savings ends on Sunday 1 April which means clocks go back one hour. How will you get our little one to stay in bed for an extra hour you might say? Well let me tell this great product we bought for our little one to keep her in bed longer. The GroClock is a training clock that has dramatically changed our life and definitely worth the money!
When our little one turned 2, we moved her into a toddler bed (not my idea, I wanted to keep her in her cot for as long as possible) and she would get up at all hours, coming into our room and waking us up. She has always been an early riser so coming into our room at 4am/5am was not ideal. After a couple of weeks of her doing this, I knew something had to be done for the sake of my sanity. I turned to Google and discovered the GroClock! I can’t express how this simple clock has changed our lives.
This digital clock has glowing screens which shows images of stars and sun to communicate ‘sleep’ and ‘wake-up’ time. You set what time you want your child to wake up (we have it set for 6.30am) and when you go to bed you switch it on so that the stars appear. The little stars go out one-by-one during the night to show the passing of time. When all the little stars disappear, the big star turns into a bright yellow sun to let your child know that it’s time to wake up.
It is so simple to understand that it took my little girl only a week or so to understand the concept.
Tips to make this work If your child is out of bed before the sun’s up you must return them back to bed, tuck them in and explain they can only come into your room until the sun’s up. Whenever she came into our room, we would ask how many stars were left on her clock and if she said 1 or 2 then we would get out of bed, tuck her back in and explain the whole process over to her.
When the sun is up, you must get out bed to start the day and praise them for waiting until the sun is up. This is important because you want them to understand that when the sun is up you get out of bed including mum and dad. Our little one would happily come into our room and yell “sun’s up mummy” and we would all get out of bed to start the day.
After a week or so of starting the training clock, we were woken up at 6.30am instead of 5am! Now, when the sun comes up she no longer shouts “sun’s up” when she enters our room but quietly tip-toes in and hops into our bed for a little cuddle before we all get up.
Perseverance and consistency is the key to making this work. By all means, it may not work for every child but it definitely has been a life saver for our family. Good luck with daylight savings ending and I’m very much looking forward to that extra hour of sleep!
You can read more about the GroClock here.