Author Topic: Groclock/Light on Timer Help  (Read 1190 times)

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Offline jul28baby

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Groclock/Light on Timer Help
« on: April 23, 2012, 17:46:11 pm »
Hi!  About 3 weeks ago we put a light on a timer for our almost 26 mos. old so that he would stop waking at 6:30/6:45am and immediately start screaming for us.  Our hope was that he would learn to wake and play until about 7am when the light went on and then call us.  It is not working.  Any thoughts/advice.

I started by practicing with him.  He thought it was kind of funny.  I pointed out that our DD has the same light in her room and talked about what DD does when her light goes on in the morning.  He still wakes at the same time, which is fine but screams and cries for us most of the time (I'd say it has gotten slightly better, he doesn't scream every morning) but about 90% of the time he does.  I would think after 3 weeks he'd get the idea but he doesn't seem to.  We have tried:

* to leave him till 7am and then go in and say, "Look, your light is on! Remember to say...Mama, Dada light came on." 
* to go in as soon as the screaming/crying starts and say, "Your light isn't on, you need to wait till it is on and then call us to come get you."  He then starts to scream louder and get more upset.

Any help would be soooo appreciated.  I didn't think he was too young and his speech is great so I know he can say what we are asking him to say and he also seems to understand what we want him to do. 

Offline Tweakster

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Re: Groclock/Light on Timer Help
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2012, 18:42:07 pm »
He's not too young but he just doesn't like the change :)  He's resisting hehe  What is his routine like?  I think maybe expecting him to be in there until 7 might be a tad too much.  How many hours sleep is he getting?  For a lot of kids 6:30 isn't early...  You might have to set the light earlier so that he gets used to it and then slowly eek it out over time.  I would set it for 6:30 to start if that's his normal time.  Then when he does wait until the light is on you can do the song and dance and parade.  Then after about a week, you move to 6:45.

We have had better luck with the Gro-clock but it's not fail safe.  Many a morning we still have to 'remind' him and he often doesn't want to follow what Mr. Sunshine does.

(((hugs))) it's not easy...we've been battling this for 3 years now...
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Offline *Becky*

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Re: Groclock/Light on Timer Help
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2012, 18:45:00 pm »
Yes I agree with pp. We introduced it at 22 months but it was more like 26 months before he finally accepted it and we are now going through a phase of him calling before it is on. Keep with it and be very consistent - that is my advice!




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Offline ENMS

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Re: Groclock/Light on Timer Help
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2012, 18:50:01 pm »
I agree with putting it first at the time he wakes, and gradually increasing it.  Also in the first few days when DD moved to a big girl bed and she could get out, she resisted it a little I would go in with her and wait for the sun then she caught on and it was not necessary anymore.  I guess it depends on your LO's personnality though, because this could make in worse in some cases I assume... Once she made a big drama about getting out of her room before her sun, I ended up getting up with her and going downstairs with her, but I did not get any toys for her, or open the TV, etc, because her sun was not up yet so until it was, she had to wait quietly (I did not want her to wake DS who was a small baby and had a rough night).  That worked very well too because she never wanted to get up before her sun again, she was so bored! LOL
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Offline babymunkey

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Re: Groclock/Light on Timer Help
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2012, 22:28:59 pm »
We had a Groclock too - I can't remember the specifics of how we did it but I do remember it took a good few months for him to reliably 'get it'. I think we started about the same age for the same reason.

FWIW when he'd really got it we were sneaky and used to put it back 30 mins at the weekend for those oh so previous extra snoozes and it worked so its worth sticking with it...

Offline ENMS

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Re: Groclock/Light on Timer Help
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2012, 22:40:05 pm »
FWIW when he'd really got it we were sneaky and used to put it back 30 mins at the weekend for those oh so previous extra snoozes and it worked so its worth sticking with it...

Same here!!! :D
Elise



Offline jul28baby

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Re: Groclock/Light on Timer Help
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2012, 23:58:42 pm »
Thanks so much!  I agree that maybe we need to pull the clock back to 6:45am (I think he wakes around 6:40ish).  Not sure why I hadn't thought of that before.  We definitely started the clock with our DD later (around 34 mos) and she was in a BGB so it was more a tool to use to let her know when to call us so she knew when she could get out of bed.  I guess since she was almost a year older it was easier.