You know the scene: you cautiously open an eye, you hear a noise; it’s a young child’s voice. You look at the clock, it’s only 6.45am and you’re in your bed, it’s the kids… they’re up early again! You may be of a mind to ask the question, ”how the flippin’ heck can I keep these little suckers in bed until a reasonable hour?”
Well I *may* have the answer for you, well I at least have one that’s worked for us and countless parents across the globe. Meet the Gro Clock.
The Gro Clock is a simple idea, but one that works for most – you make staying in bed a game. The clock itself plugs into the mains and is white, it features a big smiling sun and comes with a storybook about some unruly farm animals that keep getting up too early.
Once you have the clock set up the routine goes like this – you read the story and activate the clock, this consists of long-pressing a button, this makes the smiling glowing orange sun wink and fades away. 12 stars appear around the rim and a blue glow appears, with a big smiling star in the middle. As the night goes on and the countdown to the pre-designated ‘awake” time approaches the 12 stars disappear.
When your child wakes in the night or early in the morning, you point out how many stars are left and tell them to get into bed until the sun comes up. At the time you have set to wake up, the final stars disappear and are replaced by the orange glow and face of our old friend the sun. You can set a noise alarm too, but if the kids are going to sleep past the allocated time I say why wake them on purpose?
We first got this for Alex, our 2-year old, because he would wake at 6.45am and then shout across the hall until his brother Max (3 yo) woke up and the two of them would join forces in various noisy protests until we got up. Within a week of telling him to wait for the sun he got it though, and so we got one for Max too because I like to double down when things work.
The clock itself is easy to set up once you know how the buttons work, the interface is a bit rudimentary but I guess that keeps the cost down. Setting it up and using it, in fact, is so simple that Alex figured it out and so we had to put it on top of his wardrobe to stop him getting the sun to rise early and then shouting, “The sun is up daddy”. Max still hasn’t figured it out so I’d say that’s just Alex being too smart for his years!
Another good part of it is that the adjustable blue glow of the night clock face acts as a night light and so it means you don’t need another one for the child’s room. You can turn the light off altogether as well if you want the room dark. Also, it includes a mode for daytime naps so can be set up for that as well without disrupting the night time settings.
The Gro Clock is a robust, well produced and kid-friendly item that we have had great success with and I would recommend, especially if you have the waking up early problem.
This has an Amazon affiliate link which means if you do visit this and buy it we get some sort of kickback from them. It’s all new to us, but we’ll give a go and see if it helps with the sites running fees! Thanks and good night.
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