Clocks for Toddlers

I remembered a post that someone had made (don't remember the poster now) about a clock that did a moon or a sun depending on when the child should stay in bed or get up. I thought that sounded neat, and looked up the link. The only downside, there was no attached clock for the child to view. So I kept looking. I found this, the Teach Me Time clock:

http://www.americaninnovative.com/products/teachmetime.php

It's out of stock on their website, but I found it at www.thinkgeek.com in stock.

I'll let you know how it works out, but seems like a good combo of visual message to stay in bed or get up and an actual clock with digital and old-fashioned faces.

Since the kids seem to always wake early on weekends, and still be asleep when we go to wake them during the week (they are only 3, almost 4, isn't that supposed to start in the teen years???), we thought we'd try to find a clock that would help us all. Just telling them to wait for the clock to say 7:30 wouldn't be enough because 7:25 or 7:40 would confuse them.

Anyway, seems like a good idea. Thought I'd share.

 

ooooh, do they make watches? My girls have been asking for watches since before Christmas and I was wondering if they still made those training watches that had the inner circle with numbers for the hour hand and the outer circle with 5, 10, 15, etc. for the minute hand.

ETA: I found these http://www.timeteachingwatch.com/index.php

 

Oooh these look fantastic!! I was looking for something like these. Wonder if they sell something similiar in britain x

 

I save it onto my favorite......let me know how it is when you buy it. I would love to get one for their 3rd birthday or just in time for the bed transition.

RJ

 

For Louise+2, I found this when I was searching:

http://www.bunnyclock.com/

It's available in Europe right now only. Found it through a link at:

http://kids.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Kids_Alarm_Clock

Hope that helps!

Don't know about watches. They currently have them, but they are basically just for fun as the times aren't correct and they continually tell me it's 25:10 regardless of what the watch says

 

THAT IS AWESOME!!! Thank you thank you!!! WE need that too!!

 

I posted about this a while ago but I was looking at the Good Nite light which I still have not gotten yet b/c it is always out of stock on the website. I think my son is still a little young for a clock but he is getting up wayyyyy to early.

 

That looks neat...keep us posted on how you like it!!

 

Oh we so need his! My son is up at the crack of dawn waking up his sister and bagging on the door!!!!! This will be a life saver or sleep saver!! HEHE Thanks!!!!

 

OK!!! I ordered it and it's on it's way!!! I'll report on it when it gets here!!! :banana:

 

REPORT:

We've been through one week and a weekend. The kids like the night light feature. The wake up color change worked well on day 2 of the weekend, the first day, they had been up for a bit, and the minute the color changed, "MOOOOOOMMMMY!" pause "DAAAAAADDDDDDY!" That's their I'm up and come get me up call.

So we had a pow-wow. When the color changes, they can get out of bed and play quietly in their rooms, but no hollering for anyone, including sister or brother. They've been working on quiet time at nap times for a while now, so this is not a foreign concept to them. As their rooms are right over ours, we can hear them when they get out of bed, and that gives us a few minutes to wake up gently and then go get them up without the "megaphone-monitor-yell-alarm-clock"

I've disabled the teaching part for now (push a toe and it tells the time) until they get used to having this in their room. It will be 2 AM and I'll hear the digital voice, 2-48-A-M, if I don't. I do have it set on the hands and the digital display so they can read both, but we need to have some instructional time with it too.

All in all, good purchase, think it will be around for a while. Recommended, and wish I had found it before we moved them to big kid beds!

(To keep them in bed and quiet, we have 3 books, a few toys and 2 different nightlight functions now - the clock and the twilight turtle; all can and do go into timeout when said kid won't stay in bed or stop calling for silly things.)

ETA: I got thanked by Diane! First time ever. I'm humbled :blush:

 

I am SO ordering this this weekend! The girls keep getting up in the middle of the night and sneaking into our bed. I'll wake up at 5:00, turn over and there's a kid right next to me that I didn't know was there. It's kind of disconcerting! We've been trying to talk to them about waiting until the sun is up but it's just not working. Maybe something like that will!

 

2 thanks, squeee! Thanks Aubrey!

FYI, it's out of stock on some sites, so google it and keep looking. I found it at www.thinkgeek.com but there may be others with stock on hand. AmericanInnovations, and thus Amazon, their distributor, are out of it until April or May, I think.

 

FWIW -- if you just want the kids to stay in their rooms or not yell for you until a certain time, I recommend the "light on a timer" trick. It was surprisingly easy to train our kids (at about age 2) that it wasn't wake-up time until the light came on. Even when they were in cribs, they would wait till the light went on to holler for us.

The clock does look really cool for actually teaching them how to tell time.

 

I thought about the light on a timer idea, but was afraid that it would wake them earlier than they want to - their table lamp switching on would make a noise and be much brighter. On rare weekends they sleep until 8, and DH and I consider that heaven. This little clock is very subtle, and the light is unnoticeable unless you look at it. So, it won't wake them up early on the off chance they need to sleep in.

Plus, timers are yet another toy to play with, and I don't think our timers would fit into the safety cover boxes. Thanks for the idea though!

 

QUOTE(AlphaBeta @ Mar 2 2009, 07:22 PM) [snapback]1211451[/snapback]
I thought about the light on a timer idea, but was afraid that it would wake them earlier than they want to - their table lamp switching on would make a noise and be much brighter. On rare weekends they sleep until 8, and DH and I consider that heaven. This little clock is very subtle, and the light is unnoticeable unless you look at it. So, it won't wake them up early on the off chance they need to sleep in.

Plus, timers are yet another toy to play with, and I don't think our timers would fit into the safety cover boxes. Thanks for the idea though!


That's true -- we've just resigned ourselves to the fact that they're going to wake up at 7:15 whether it's necessary or not. I hadn't thought about the fact that the clock changing color wouldn't wake them up if they were actually still asleep.... hmmm.... (Though Amy usually wakes at about 6:45 anyway.)

 

QUOTE(AlphaBeta @ Mar 2 2009, 08:06 AM) [snapback]1211018[/snapback]
REPORT:

We've been through one week and a weekend. The kids like the night light feature. The wake up color change worked well on day 2 of the weekend, the first day, they had been up for a bit, and the minute the color changed, "MOOOOOOMMMMY!" pause "DAAAAAADDDDDDY!" That's their I'm up and come get me up call.

So we had a pow-wow. When the color changes, they can get out of bed and play quietly in their rooms, but no hollering for anyone, including sister or brother. They've been working on quiet time at nap times for a while now, so this is not a foreign concept to them. As their rooms are right over ours, we can hear them when they get out of bed, and that gives us a few minutes to wake up gently and then go get them up without the "megaphone-monitor-yell-alarm-clock"

I've disabled the teaching part for now (push a toe and it tells the time) until they get used to having this in their room. It will be 2 AM and I'll hear the digital voice, 2-48-A-M, if I don't. I do have it set on the hands and the digital display so they can read both, but we need to have some instructional time with it too.

All in all, good purchase, think it will be around for a while. Recommended, and wish I had found it before we moved them to big kid beds!

(To keep them in bed and quiet, we have 3 books, a few toys and 2 different nightlight functions now - the clock and the twilight turtle; all can and do go into timeout when said kid won't stay in bed or stop calling for silly things.)

ETA: I got thanked by Diane! First time ever. I'm humbled :blush:

WELLLLLLL!!! The reason you got thanked is that you posted about something I NEEDED w/o my asking for it! It's just polite, right?! :laughing:

I RECEIVED MINE TODAY!!! I'm a bit under the weather, so I haven't played with it too much - but cannot wait to try it out!!! The teaching functions are great as well!!

THANK YOU!! I'll write my review after a few days of use!!! :hug:

 

I just ordered the clock from ThinkGeek.com and was able to get $10 off using the promotion code "giveme10". Just wanted to share that in case anyone else was considering buying it.
I'm really hoping this clock will make our mornings better!

 

QUOTE(T.O. Twins @ Mar 13 2009, 10:51 AM) [snapback]1226493[/snapback]
I just ordered the clock from ThinkGeek.com and was able to get $10 off using the promotion code "giveme10". Just wanted to share that in case anyone else was considering buying it.
I'm really hoping this clock will make our mornings better!

Thank you for the promotion code!!!

 

QUOTE(AlphaBeta @ Mar 2 2009, 11:06 AM) [snapback]1211018[/snapback]
REPORT:

We've been through one week and a weekend. The kids like the night light feature. The wake up color change worked well on day 2 of the weekend, the first day, they had been up for a bit, and the minute the color changed, "MOOOOOOMMMMY!" pause "DAAAAAADDDDDDY!" That's their I'm up and come get me up call.

So we had a pow-wow. When the color changes, they can get out of bed and play quietly in their rooms, but no hollering for anyone, including sister or brother. They've been working on quiet time at nap times for a while now, so this is not a foreign concept to them. As their rooms are right over ours, we can hear them when they get out of bed, and that gives us a few minutes to wake up gently and then go get them up without the "megaphone-monitor-yell-alarm-clock"

I've disabled the teaching part for now (push a toe and it tells the time) until they get used to having this in their room. It will be 2 AM and I'll hear the digital voice, 2-48-A-M, if I don't. I do have it set on the hands and the digital display so they can read both, but we need to have some instructional time with it too.

All in all, good purchase, think it will be around for a while. Recommended, and wish I had found it before we moved them to big kid beds!

(To keep them in bed and quiet, we have 3 books, a few toys and 2 different nightlight functions now - the clock and the twilight turtle; all can and do go into timeout when said kid won't stay in bed or stop calling for silly things.)

ETA: I got thanked by Diane! First time ever. I'm humbled :blush:

Yay!! THanks for sharing this info!!


QUOTE(AlphaBeta @ Mar 2 2009, 03:22 PM) [snapback]1211451[/snapback]
I thought about the light on a timer idea, but was afraid that it would wake them earlier than they want to - their table lamp switching on would make a noise and be much brighter. On rare weekends they sleep until 8, and DH and I consider that heaven. This little clock is very subtle, and the light is unnoticeable unless you look at it. So, it won't wake them up early on the off chance they need to sleep in.

Plus, timers are yet another toy to play with, and I don't think our timers would fit into the safety cover boxes. Thanks for the idea though!

That's the same reason I wouldn't do it. I like how you said the light is subtle. :good: