Perfectly Practical #173 - The Clock and Wake Up Time
When Diva was small, she would wake up at sunrise and would come knocking on our door. That didn't go over particularly well with Engineer nor myself. Especially since sunrise in the summer in England is crazy early.
We tried to explain to Diva that she should stay in her bed until 6am and in her room until 7am but that meant nothing to her little 4 year old brain.
Then we had the brilliant idea of putting a clock in her room.
We showed her when the little hand was on the six and the big hand was on the twelve, she could get out of bed but not out of her room. But when the little hand was on the seven and the big hand was on the twelve, she could emerge from her room and scamper off to her playroom or down to breakfast.
It worked! She would stay in her room until 7am everyday. She didn't have to stay in her bed, but she couldn't leave her room (unless it was to the bathroom obviously.)
Happy parents because no one was awakened by a small child knocking on the door at 4:30 in the morning and happy child because she had her own way of knowing when it was time to wake up and start her day.
Read more articles on Kids and Sleeping from my Sister Bloggers:
Encouraging an Early Bedtime
9 Tips We Used to "Train" Our Kids for An Early Bedtime by Marie from Buncha Monkeys
Tips for Troubled Sleepers
Tips for Moms with Kids that Have Trouble Sleeping by Nicollete from Powerful Mothering
Autism and Its Effect on Sleep
Autism Spectrum Disorder and Sleep by Katie from The Audacity of Motherhood
Be A Restful Parent
I Want You So Bad...10 Tips for A Better Sleep by Victoria from Busy House Big Heart
Sucessful Co-Sleeping
Twelve Tips to Help Make Co-Sleeping Work by Heidi from Powerful Mothering
The Importance of Routine
The Importance of a Bedtime Routine by Alexa from No Holding Back
This Worked for Us!
That's great! But are you saying she would wake at 4:30 and stay in her room until 7:00?? Didn't she get hungry? I would!
ReplyDeleteWe had great success with a digital clock as a way of keeping the kid from coming into our bed in the middle of the night. Needing to wait a while, but knowing that time was finite, often enabled him to fall back to sleep without our assistance.
She may have gotten hungry but she has always been an ultra focused child. Once she began reading or playing, everything else faded away, even hunger.
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