Does the Gro-Clock work?

[caroline29woohooo]

Thinking of getting one for my (just turned) 3 year old as she wakes for the day at 4:30/5 am (as well as frequent getting out of bed stints during night, trying to get into ours) Don't wanna waste money if it's a ridiculous gimmick. Anyone used this or believe it works?

I started using it with my just turned 3 year old a couple of weeks ago - it's worked brilliantly with him!

It depends what you mean by "work". I have found it very useful for helping my DC know when it is (our definition of) morning. It has stars on it while it is night and you set a time for the sun face to come on, which shows your DC that it is morning. I think it can be really helpful for young children as they have no other real way of knowing the time. A few months ago it was bright at 10pm and bright again at 4.30am. It is now dark at both bedtime and in the morning. Its really confusing for small children. However if your child is in the habit of coming into you in the night for reasons other than thinking its time to get up, then it won't in itself solve that problem.

worked for mine. keeps them in bed anyway. you need to keep the "wake up time" realistic, ie encourage them to stay in bed and wait for the sun and keep making it later. the sun beams dance around and the face changes colour when it is time to wake. once they learn to stay in bed resting, their body clock should gradually get them sleeping longer.

It's not about the Groclock, it's what you do with it. So if you do some preparation / explanation and are really strict about 'oh dear, still blue moon, back to bed' then IME it works. If you don't do all that, then it doesn't.

I found it worked for both children, because it basically signalled 'mum won't get up, no matter how much you whinge' (obviously excluding illness/ nightmares). But if it just signals 'mum would rather you stayed in bed, but will give in about it if you whine enough', then that's no use.

If you work consistently with it then yes, it can work really well. It will take a few weeks of talking it through, reward charts, returning them to bed etc for it to work though.

We started it at about that age and it works brilliantly. Even at nearly 5 we still use it, so DD knows she has to stay in her room and play until it turns yellow, which is so useful in the mornings so we know that she isn't running riot while we shower and the like in a different part of the house.