Opinions on the groclock?

[cheesemarmitepanini]

Good idea, or not worth it?

I loved the idea of the groclock but my DS fiddled with it when he woke and ended up changing it so the sun showed which unfortunately meant he then thought it was time to get up. He was about 3 at the time and from that night onwards would do the same thing each time so unfortunately it didn't work for us.

We got one for our older DC. Then as PP’s chi old DC played with it and changed the setting.

We then put it out of reach of DC, it’s still in use and DC knows not to wake us before the sun comes out in the clock.

We have had one for a couple of months (she’s heading towards three). She knows she is supposed to stay in bed until it goes yellow, and always says (unprompted) she will try. Yesterday was the first time she woke up and played in her room until it changed colour. She didn’t this morning. Who knows! If she stays in her room until it turns yellow she gets some chocolate in the morning...

@Csari There is a child lock function on it to prevent this happening. I also learnt the hard way!

The clock works for us now, DS waits for the sun every morning. It was hit and miss before but now we have had it a while it has sunk in, we were fairly strict with not letting him get out of his room before the right time though so if he is up before the sun he can play or read in his room.

I like it. We've had it for about 8 months, since our daughter turned 2. As expected it took a while for her to understand it, and she did mess with it (and conquered the child lock on day 2!) But she's so used to it now she doesn't mess with it and loves putting the owl to bed at night.

I'd say it does work now, mostly she'll wait and shout for us once it's time. It has been a long road though, she's been a truly horrendous sleeper till quite recently so I don't think the gro clock has been a miracle or anything, just one of many tools.

We used ours from age 2 ish and still do at just turned 8!

It won’t train your child for you, it’s not magic, but in our case our dc wasn’t desperate to get up, they just really wanted to know the “time” when he woke in the night and with that information in an easy to understand format (how many stars) they were happy to go back to sleep if it was too early.
We live quite far north where the actual sunrise is no help (4am in mid summer, after school begins in mid winter).

We taught ours to read the clock about 3, pick one with clear hands and numbers (kids ones can be too busy with pictures which confuse them) far easier. Also send them to bed later habitually and they get up later

It worked really well for us at around 3. We gradually shifted the sun later, which meant we could praise her for waiting. It also helped her to have a sense of time if she woke in the night e.g. one star was OK to get up and play but lots of stars try to go back to sleep.

I'm sure it works for some kids.

Mine apparently has the internal body clock of a shepherd and a yellow sun on a clock makes absolutely zero difference.

We used it at 2 and a half for a few months and it worked great but we used it in our own way and not how it's meant to be used. We hated the idea that our son had to stay in bed no matter what until the sun appears so the little children's story book that has that message in went straight in the bin!

We told ds that when the gro clock is blue he can still call us if he needs us, only we'd be doing 'nighttime things' e.g quiet cuddles, getting back to sleep etc and that day time wouldn't start until the sun appeared. It worked brilliantly and the only reason we stopped is because we had to move ds out of his cot and into his big boy bed and didn't feel comfortable having it plugged in in his room in case he played with it in the night. They need to make a battery operated one!

We got one for DD age 3 and a bit. The first few nights it categorically didn’t work because she was terrified of the owl . Thereafter yes - though she is clearly awake and waiting for the yellow light most mornings. Still, 7am vs 5.30…

Complete waste of time for us.

We don't need to 'train' him as such. The small issue we have is that he's dry at night and often needs to use the loo around 5:45 to 6:15. Getting up time used to easily be between 7:00 and 7:30 when he still had a nappy.

Ideally, he would get up, use the loo, and lie back down until 7:00 at the earliest. I think that's achievable? Maybe?!

@Csari I hate to tell you this now but if you press and hold the down arrow it locks so they can’t change it 😃

One of my children got on with it reasonably well. The other two think I’m taking the piss and refuse to obey.

We LOVE ours. We got it when DD was 2.5ish and she got it straight away. She's very sensible and a stickler for the rules, though. She absolutely loved it.

In fact, she's 7 and refuses to stop using it! DS is 3 and still happy in his cot, but we're getting him a big bed soon and I asked DD if we could pass it down to him... that got a big "no!" She's normally delighted to give her old stuff to him, because she's a big girl etc.

So it looks like we'll be getting a new one soon. Although I think they've changed it to an owl instead of a star, so we'll have to go second hand as DS likes to be the same as his sister.

@CoodleMoodle

We LOVE ours. We got it when DD was 2.5ish and she got it straight away. She's very sensible and a stickler for the rules, though. She absolutely loved it.

In fact, she's 7 and refuses to stop using it! DS is 3 and still happy in his cot, but we're getting him a big bed soon and I asked DD if we could pass it down to him... that got a big "no!" She's normally delighted to give her old stuff to him, because she's a big girl etc.

So it looks like we'll be getting a new one soon. Although I think they've changed it to an owl instead of a star, so we'll have to go second hand as DS likes to be the same as his sister.

I think they sell both

We had a previous version of this, a clock face that looked like a rabbit whose ears would pop up and eyes would open at the time set. In our household it went like this -
Any time from 6 am onwards -
DD in a very bright and cheerful voice - "Wabbit is asleep but I am AWAKE!"
That was £16 wasted....

She's late teens now and on a weekend we don't tend to see her before 10 am. All things come to he who waits...

Works well in our house. I went to check on dd when I went to bed and accidentally woke her up and she didn't even look at me, she looked at the clock then closed her eyes and went back to sleep. I hadn't realised how much she used it until then. She comes into our room every morning saying "the clock is yellow. It's morning time"

Worked like a charm for both my children and both my nephews.
My eldest is 8 and still likes to have it on overnight.

@cheesemarmitepanini

Ah, I haven't seen the star one around for awhile! I'll have to have a closer look, thanks for the info.

Good luck if you decide to get one, it definitely helped us. Well, it did with DD anyway, DS is a different kettle of fish

@kylereese I so wish I'd know that then lol. He's nearly 6 now and still wakes up way too early.