A few months ago I purchased a Gro-Clock Sleep Trainer for Sebastian. Whilst we had been lucky for a long time with Sebastian sleeping and staying in his bed, one day he decided to wake and start the day early (like 5am early). At first we thought it was a one off as you do, but then one day turned into two and into a week and then two and before we knew it we had had nearly a month of early starts, cue one tired household. 🙁
I had heard some great things about the Gro-Clock Sleep Trainer so decided to bite the bullet and hand over the $80.00 in a bid to get my last hour of sleep back and in return gain a wee bit of my sanity as well.
For those of you who don’t know the Gro-Clock Sleep Trainer teaches children how to distinguish between day and night. When its night time Mr Star is up and when it’s daytime (and more importantly time to get up) Mr Sun is up. Stars around the outside of the clock disappear as it gets closer to wake up time, so kids can see / learn how time passes.
As a Mum I like that:
- You can set the time you want you child to get up to whatever suits. It is recommended that you move the time your child gets up forward slowly in increments of 10 minutes until they are getting up at your desired time
- You can lock the screen, so NO little fingers can play with it
- There are two wake up times – ie. naptime and night time (I am actually thinking about using it during quiet time so Sebastian can see how much longer he has to go)
- It’s silent!
- You can use it as a nightlight and can control the brightness
- There is an accompanying story book which explains the clock to your child. Sebastian loved it so much that it soon became a part of our nightly routine, he even started reading it to us.
Something that I wasn’t convinced about it that it is only run off mains power. We have a inquisitive two year old who likes to check things out and see how they work so as you can imagine on more than one occasion we have had to check the time of the clock as it has been unplugged and replugged in, so the time has been out. It also meant you had to have a power point in easy reach or run extension cords. Neither of these things were a big deal but were a bit annoying.
Overall though, I love our Gro-Clock Sleep Trainer. It has been a godsend saving our family from early mornings which makes for a happier Mummy and happier Sebastian. I have also found it to be a great learning tool for Sebastian, as we have had lots of subsequent conversations about the sun and stars; night and day; the story book (which comes with it)and even counting. Don’t get me wrong, we still have some mornings when a little person comes pitter patter into our room however having the Gro-Clock means we just walk him back, explaining the suns not up, back to sleep and 9.9 times out of 10 we have success.
If you would like to get your hands on one of these, pop on over to Cruisy Baby!
** I purchased the Gro-Clock Sleep Trainer on my own accord; please note all thoughts and opinions are my own **
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