Hellobee Boards

We started using it with DD at about that same exact age and she definitely got the concept and "obeyed" it even better than she does now.

I told her if her clock's not green, she should either lay back down or play quietly. As soon as the clock turns green, she announces it to us repeatedly, so she definitely gets it

Unfortunately, at almost 3, she's figured out we will come get her if she announces she has to go potty, but I guess that's a good thing...

Works really well for us too. Now at 3.5 she often wakes up before and plays with her stuffed animals or "reads" her books until it lights up. And for naps, it helps because she doesn't sleep every time but knows to stay in bed and rest quietly until it lights up.

The bathroom thing is an issue here too though. But we put her back in bed after potty until the clock lights up. It's been a great tool for us!
To start I would have it light up close to her current wakeup time to set her up for success. Then once she gets it move it back by like 15 minute increments.

I like ours but it wasn't a magical solution. I think part of the problem was they are sharing a room. So if he got up before the clock turned green, we couldn't really let him scream or cry if we tried to put him back in bed. So he kinda learned the clock didn't really matter.

Trying it with 28 mo and he doesn't obey it yet but I don't think he totally gets the concept. He used to sleep until 639/645 and now it's 545 so I would like til 6.

We started using it (or a similar one - we have the Gro Clock) when B was about 2. Took him a few weeks to get the hang of it but now he's 3 and it works perfectly. The only downside is that at 6am on the dot, weekday or weekend, he slams his door open, yells "DADDY THE SUN IS AWAKE!", and starts his day. If he wakes up and has to go to the bathroom we can show him that the sun is still sleeping so he has to go back to bed until it wakes up. He also really likes the book that comes with it.

@LBee: you can change the duration of the light being green! We had a similar problem to where she slept thru the light and was really confused when we came to get her after she woke up. "But my light's not green! Green means go!" Lol.

Op, this worked great for us, especially nap times. We moved DD to a big girl bed around 2 5 and she started coming out 5+ times during nap time, so we got the clock the same day and it's been awesome since.

@abbydabbydoodlebug: how????

@emilye519: Unfortunately some kids just wake up early. 5:30 really isn't "night time" - just not a time when adults have zero desire to be up for the day, LOL. My kids have gone through periods of early waking, gone back to waking later, etc. I do think once the nap is totally eliminated you can count on getting to sleep until at least 6 But the nap is important for so many reasons I would be hesitant to cut it. I thought early waking was due to DS2 having a longer nap...but honestly we've also limited it and he's not sleeping any later. I think it's just a phase and I'm hoping he will go back to later waking....evenutally.

@emilye519: its so tough! my kiddo is suddenly sleeping less at night and he's absolutely yawning by 9 am. but, he has to wait until after lunch for a nap. this too shall pass!

We tried one when DS was about 2.5, and it didn't work. We'd talk to him about staying in his room until it was green and he'd seem like he understood. Then the next day he'd wake up at 5:30, slam the door open, and tell us "my clock didn't turn green". I think now at 3.5 it would work, but the dumb thing broke. We put in in a drawer and when we went to try to use it again it wasn't working right. And I don't really feel like spending $40 on another one.

Lo is 3 and I'm not sure when we got the clock, sometime around 2.5...but it doesn't really work for us, lo knows she's not supposed to get up but does anyway 🙄 We need to enforce it better!

We got the Gro Clock for DS just before or around when he was 3. We started it out at what time he naturally woke and changed it in incriments to a more acceptable time. He got it right away but it doesn't always keep him in bed.

He is super proud of himself when he does sleep until the sun is up. A majority of the time he crawls into our bed sometime in the night. He always asks to go check if the sun is up when he wakes up.

I agree with the pp that said it works really well if your kid is a rule follower.