Help kids learn it’s time for sleep with Gro Clock!
Parents of toddlers ask me all the time how to help improve their kids’ sleep and teach them it is time to sleep. Perhaps their child is having early morning wakings. Or maybe they don’t want to stay in their cribs or beds for nap time. Or perhaps they have trouble settling in the evening.
How to Go to Sleep with a Visual Reminder
A GroClock can help with sleep, as the screen displays stars and sun images to communicate sleep time and wake-up time. Essentially you control the time to sleep. You set the wake-up time yourself. If you want ‘morning’ to b7 AMAM, you tell the clock that. If I want nap time to be 1 PM 3 PM3PM, you tell the clock that. When it is ‘day,’ the clock has a sun and is bright yellow. When it is ‘night’ or ‘naptime,’ it is blue with stars. It is a visual reminder to your child that it is rest time or playtime. Most kids understand this concept by two years of age.
The GroClock comes with a bedtime storybook (in both English and French) to help teach your child the concept of resting when it’s blue and playing when it’s yellow. Pretty simple concept.
Essentially this sleep trainer demonstrates to your child when it’s time to get up and when it is time to sleep. We taught our kids, “stay in bed until you see the sun!” The GroClock uses fun images of the stars and sun along with the sleepy farm story to communicate when to go back to sleep and when it’s time to get out of bed. For older children, there is also a digital display with the time, so they can learn to tell the time and look for the sun’s arrival with the visual countdown.
Using the GroClock helps instill a routine for wake-up time. It has an obvious indication of when to wake up (big yellow sun/screen is self-explanatory and easy to understand. The first night we explained to our kids that they needed to stay in bed until the sun came. Sure enough, come morning time our kids woke up before the “wake up” time. We put them back to bed and explained they had to wait for the “sun” to come before it’s time to get up.
By day 2 or 3, they played quietly in their rooms until the sun told them it was time to get up. They were so excited once they saw the clock in action, and once the yellow sun comes on the screen, they are so pleased to see it.
Our kids learned pretty quickly to wait in their rooms and stay quiet until the clock “sun” came up to signal morning time, and only at that time should they come out of their room. The clock didn’t keep them sleeping longer in the morning per se, but it does signal that they should be quiet until the “sun” comes out and tells them it’s morning time.
The clock comes with an instruction manual that was super easy to follow and set the appropriate times. You set one morning “wake up” time. Once and done. Each night before bed, you start the clock, and it goes into sleep mode, where the blue stars come out to show your child it’s bedtime.
We bought a GroClok when our first son was two and a half and struggling with his transition to a bed. He was constantly getting up in the middle of the night and coming to our room.
Within a few weeks of buying the clock and reminding him at bedtime to stay in bed and not to get up until the clock said it was okay, he improved so much.
We loved this clock so much we bought another one for our second son and started using it when he was only 18 months and in a crib. We would just explain at bedtime every night that it’s not time to get up until the clock says so. This pattern continued, and we had no challenges moving him to a big boy bed.
We used the clock with our third and got great results too.
It’s important to note that the clock is only a visual reminder that it is still sleep/quiet time and not morning. You still have to reinforce the importance of listening to the clock. If your child ignores the clock, and there is no consequence for this, the clock won’t benefit you. If listening to the clock leads to reward, praise, and parental happiness, this will reinforce listening to the clock and lead to sleeping in and excellent sleep for your whole family!
FAQs
What is a GroClock?
A GroClock is a clock that acts as a visual aid to teach your child when it is time to sleep and when it is time to get up.
When can I use the GroClock to increase sleep time?
Most kids can successfully start to learn from the GroClock after 18 months of age. It can be successfully used in toddlers and children of all ages.
Does my child need to know how to tell time to use the GroClock to teach how to go to sleep?
No! The GroClock does have a clock for older children, but the main feature is a yellow screen with a sun signaling it is time to wake up and a blue screen with stars signaling sleep/nap time.
Dina is a wife, mother of 4, and adrenaline junky. She loves to share children’s health information from her professional and personal experience. More About Dr Dina.
