I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the clock that we use for our kids to help them know when it’s time to wake up. I was also recently asked if I could share about how we made the transition from naps to quiet times for Ryan, and since Natalie has recently started the process of dropping her naps as well, it seemed like the best time to share about both.
At what age did you start using the clock?
We started using the clock with Ryan to help him understand the start of morning when he was around 2.5, and Natalie got hers right before she turned 3. I don’t think it hurts to try it younger though! Now that Emily and Natalie share a room, she’ll likely understand the meaning of the clock even earlier.
How long does it take for them to understand?
This is obviously going to be different for every kid, but what has worked the best for us is making sure the clock is used in a positive way and celebrating every time our kids wait until their clocks turn green to call for us in the morning or come out of their rooms after quiet time.
At least for us, this is not a “teach one time” kind of thing. There are many times when we reset the wake-up time to earlier than we’d like for it to be to retrain and create success with using it. Then we gradually back it up to the time we want it to be once they’re ready.
Do you have any tricks for helping your kids learn how to wait until it’s green to call for you?
We talk about waiting for the clock to turn green every night as we’re tucking them in bed. Ryan (4.5) is great at this now (for the most part), so for him, we just say, “I can’t wait to see you when your light turns green!”
With Natalie, we ask her to tell us (as we’re tucking her in at night) when she’s going to call for us in the morning. Then she usually goes into a long spiel about calling when the light is green but NOT calling when it’s not green because Emily is sleeping and that would wake Emily up and we don’t want to wake Emily up because she’s sleeping… (one would think she would not call until her clock turns green with such an elaborate explanation). 😉
So much of this is training them to be okay with being awake by themselves in their cribs or beds. And training them that it’s okay to wait (such a positive and needed life skill!). So on the mornings when she does call for me before her clock is green and it’s within a few minutes of when it’s supposed to turn green, I walk into her room and ask if she sees a green light (to which she usually says “yes” even though the room is pitch black, hah). Then we go through the whole reasoning about why it’s important to wait. If she has woken up Emily, I’ll ask her to tell Emily she’s sorry for waking her up (only because we really try to teach our kids awareness and consideration of each other.) And then I’ll explain that she was so close to her light turning green and will either wait the couple of minutes with her, or walk over and quickly reset the clock to turn green a minute later so we can watch it together and practice the routine. When it turns green, I’ll say, “This is when you call for mommy and when mommy comes into your room to say good morning. If this light is not on, you wait until you see it before you call.”
The other thing you can do is have a reward chart with a small prize when your kids have success with the clock a certain number of days in a row. I would start small with just 3 days in a row and build from there. I would just always make sure that the clock is viewed as a positive teaching tool and not tied to a negative consequence if they are not successful with it. Back the clock up as early as needed to give your kids success and then add on time once they seem to understand.
How do you know when your child is ready to drop naps?
The age of when this happens for each child is different, but one of the first signs that your little one is ready to drop naps is when it starts interfering with their nighttime sleep, specifically being able to fall asleep at a reasonable time.
I am all for a nap window, so when this starts to happen, rather than drop naps all together, I start pulling back on the length of the naps. So if nap time is typically 2+ hours, start waking your little one up after 1.5 hours. Then adjust from there.
Personally, I would try to hold on to some sort of a nap window with your first for as long as possible. Once you have another child not napping, it makes it a little easier to transition your other kids out of naps because you’re no longer used to the same long stretch of time in the middle of the day. And for the love of all things savor those longs stretches during the middle of the day while you have them. 😉
Training “rest” time with the OK to Wake Clock
In the same way that we back the clock up to however early it needs to be to create success for morning wake up time, we set the clock for a very short amount of time when we introduce independent play for rest time.
I sit with them in their rooms for the first few days and set the clock to fifteen minutes. While we’re playing, we’ll look up at the clock several times to see if it’s green (and I’ll ask out loud if the light is green yet) and while we’re playing, we talk about all of the things that our kids can play with by themselves during rest time.
On the first day that they do their rest time by themselves, I set the clock for a very short amount of time (I’m talking 5-7 minutes), and really really build up how exciting it is that they get to play instead of nap. When they wait the full 5-7 minutes, I make a really big deal about it and talk about how grown up they are. The next day, I might to 5-7 minutes again but will soon after start upping the time to 10, 15, 20, all the way up to 45 minutes, which is what Ryan does.
Now, I know plenty of people whose kids play in their rooms well for 1.5 hours or more. This is a personal decision. I chose to have Ryan only do 45 minutes when he started because we were in a season where his sisters required a lot of my attention during the day, so I like to spend the second half of their nap time doing something one-on-one with him. Once all of our kids are doing rest time, it will make more sense to extend this time.
Also keep in mind that if you’re starting this with an older child, you can likely begin with much more than 5-7 minutes alone. Just choose a time that you are confident your child will be successful with. Having success the first couple of days and praising it is so important to the longterm success of rest time!
Sweet guy now every day does “setups” during his rest time and then wants me to come see when his clock turns green.
When Emily is afternoon napping (she morning naps on the days that Ryan and Natalie are in school so I can knock out some work), I will let Ryan and Natalie have their rest time together. This is a work in progress (mainly because Natalie comes out since 45 minutes is still long for her), but I remind myself that the long-term goal is for each of our kids to have a set amount of time in their rooms each day and as long as I’m consistent in teaching it, it will one day click.
This is the clock that we use. It comes with the two different colored faces, so you just choose which color you want to use. It has a battery option as well as a cord, but you will need the USB adapter (same as what you use for an iPhone charger).
I’ll leave you with this sweet picture of Ryan. On the rare, he’ll fall asleep during his rest time, and on this particular day, he fell asleep looking at books in his teepee. Sweet. Love.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment below, send me an email (heather@makinghomehere.com) or DM me on Instagram (I’ll be honest- that’s my fastest response time!).
