I wanted to write a review for people like me. I am a good parent, but we operate a little more by the moment in hour house so sometimes very regimented toys and activities just don't work for our family because our existence is so hectic that we just don't have time to be consistent. So, I bought this clock with 3 things in mind. First, my 4-year old son REALLY wanted a clock. He had just recently become enamored with clocks in general. Second, we were having a getting out of bed multiple times, and ending up in bed with me issue, mostly with my 2 year-old son. Thirdly, the 2-year old was starting to act as though he might have an issue with the dark and leaving their dimmable light on low was the only way to begin to get him in the mood to negotiate bed time (and you know you have trouble when you are bargaining at bed time with your 2 year-old.) What I was concerned about was that we would get this, not be able to use it easily and therefore not consistently and it would be another really good idea that just did not work for us.
Now, we have had our clock for less than a week and it has already transformed bed time and sleeping habits in our house. The only major committment I had to make was to insist that the boys (mostly the little guy) get back in bed when they woke up at night, and not take the easy way out and allow them to get in bed with me. I never had to bother with my 4 year-old. He was so excited about his clock and caught on to all the meanings of the colors right away, so he understood and abided by the new rules of his own accord. Night one, my little guy got out of bed 8 times between going to bed and getting up in the morning. I quicly and calmly took him back to his bed and said "the clock is still blue, it's still bedtime, you can get up in the morning when the clock is yellow." He would fuss, and we would do it again a few minutes later. Night two he got up 3 times. Night three and four he got up 2 times and yesterday he got up only one time, 10 minutes before the clock would have turned yellow for wake up time anyway. He is a very stubborn little boy, so the fact that this worked with him is amazing!
It's easy to set up your bed time and wake up time which work automatically going forward. You simply press the light blue naptime button, red discipline button, and green positive activity button to start those activities, whose duration you also pre-set. There are story-time, music and white noise options for bed and/or wake time. The clock comes with one faceplate and one cartridge (music and story.) It will also work on battery and comes with an AC adapter. I LOVE that it is an analog clock, though all the functions are set using the digital clock on the back. The Children's Dreamland story cartridge that comes with this is kind of a hypnotic, and although I think the voice is kinds of nasal and weird, it seems to relax the kids.
I do not know if the success of this product is due to the product itself or because parents are so desparate for this product to work that they committ to the behaviors that would have solved the sleeping problems in the first place, but either way IT DOES WORK. So, some of you other parents out there like me, for whom some of the more hyped trends in child rearing are more trouble than what they accomplish, please do not pass this up, it will work, with minimal effort and great results!
I got this clock partly so my daughter can tell when it's okay to get up (now that it is dark outside until 8 am), but also because of the music, white noise and night light features. It works well on the basic yellow/blue color switching. BUT, the music is annoying and computerized sounding, it plays for too long (30 minutes!) and you CANNOT use the white noise if you don't use the music. I am particularly irritated about not being able to use the white noise without the music, as the white noise is why I selected this clock over a less expensive option...I guess I'll be buying another white noise machine after all.
Buy My Tot Clock: Helping Small Children Sleep Better...So Parents Can Too! Now
Our 3-year old would come into our room at least two times in the middle of the night, and he would come into our room at 6 am ready to start his day. Since we purchased the Tot Clock, it took less than a week for our son to stay in his room all night, and he is staying in his room until the clock turns yellow to start his day more sleep for us! He was talking about being scared, so since it also works as a night light, that problem has gone away, and he is sleeping much better.
Also, we were having trouble getting him to stay in his room for quiet time during the day. He gets so excited about seeing the different colors of his clock, that he is now happy about quiet time because he gets to push the light blue button, and he is staying in his room the entire time.
It works just as well for keeping him in his room for discipline issues.
It's fun and easy to use. We love the Tot Clock, and we HIGHLY recommend it!
Read Best Reviews of My Tot Clock: Helping Small Children Sleep Better...So Parents Can Too! Here
I would have NEVER believed how fabulously a clock could change our lives! Our daughter LOVES having her very own clock and we have gone from getting out of bed at 5am to staying in until 7am in just a couple of weeks!!!!!! WHO KNEW???? I wish I had found this clock months ago!!!!!!
The concept is simple but ingenious! You set the times you want the clock to turn yellow (time to wake up) and blue (time for bed) and the rest of the magic the clock takes care of itself. The clock has the flexibility to have a nighttime story read and you can add music/white noise as you want. My daughter LOVES watching the clock turn colors and can't wait to run into my room in the morning to let me know that her clock turned to yellow.
The clock is very easy to use and I love the flexibility of adding music to your routine, being able to change out stories and face plates, and to be able to use this for time outs and as positive reinforcement for potty time and other things. We even used the clock to help us transition from crib to big girl bed. Her bedtime routine stayed the same... even though the bed (and the tendency to get out of it) changed.
This is a fantastic product and has been a lifesaver (not to mention SLEEP saver) for us! I highly recommend this clock... you WON'T find anything else out there like it! Happy sleeping!!!!!
Want My Tot Clock: Helping Small Children Sleep Better...So Parents Can Too! Discount?
We use this clock to help guide our kids stay in their room in the morning and not wake up Mommy and Daddy at 5:00am. We soon discovered that it had a side-benefit of letting the kids get more sleep, as they no longer wake each other up for the exciting excursion to come fetch us. It works 100% with our four year old, not quite as well with the two year old, who is something of an iconoclast.
Three tips:
(1) Plug it in; the clock runs through batteries quickly.
(2) If it gets unplugged and replugged, even if it has batteries and doesn't forget the current time, the color-changing times you set in the back may get scrambled.
(3) The buttons on the top are trivially easy for little kids to push, turning the clock to 'daylight,' for example, at their whim. Keep the clock on a high shelf.
My daughter was given another one of the Haba clutching toys for Christmas and loves it so I bought this one thinking it could be a replacement for when the other one is dropped (or thrown) on the floor and is in the pile of toys to be cleaned. It is nice looking and so far seems to be well made (as are the other Haba toys we have) but the colored knobs are a little on the small side so it is a little difficult for her to fiddle with them. She does like to jingle the bell but loses interest in about 30 seconds...maybe when she is a little older she will like it more but for now the Haba Magica toy is the favorite.
