Today I have been thinking about time! Especially my beloved sleep time.I have 4 kids...they all pretty much sleep though the night now. There is always the occasional bad dream or illness that disrupts this pattern, but they do sleep through the night.
Throw in a little daylight savings time change and my kids have been getting up at the crack of dawn. NO.... they get up at the cracks crack of dawn!
So this morning I thought to myself, "Time to pull out the clock again!" A few years ago when we were having a problem with the kiddlets getting out of bed to early I made this clock. At the time my two boys couldn't read a face clock too well so I used color and a little fun sticker to help them out.
Supplies:
- clock
- fun sticker
- colored pencils
- ruler
I bought a really cheap clock at Wal-Mart for $3. It has a plastic cover on the front that pops off. I took a ruler and drew out lines from the center to the hours that I wanted. In my case it was 5, 7 and 8! I colored red in between 5 and 7 to show them the times that were unacceptable to be out of bed. Then I colored green inbetween 7 and 8 to show them when it was okay to get out of bed. Place the sticker on the hour hand.If the frog was in the red it was time to get back into bed. If it was in the green then they could get out of bed without awaking a crazy momma bear!
This worked wonders! If they started to wander out of bed I would ask, "Is the frog in the red or green?" Pretty soon they didn't even peek out of their room because they got the hang of reading the clock on their own. (we also set their clock about 10 minutes slower...hahaha...mean I know!)
What time is precious to you?
Think about it...
P.S. Check out this awesome blog I stumbled across this morning...She has some great ideas for homemade Christmas decorations and gifts.
Posts
I remember when you did this...such a great idea! Hey, my friends started this really fun blog I think you would LOVE! Check it out at
ReplyDeletehttp://www.howdoesshe.com/ You can blog swap and poppies at play could be featured on their blog, this is the type of stuff they love...
Oh my word what a great idea! This post is perfect for me today since my children decided to get up at 5, so I am going to try this at least with my 3 year old. At least I know I am not the only one dealing with kids so early in the morning. Uggg!!! Thanks for this post Heather you are awesome.
ReplyDeleteYou are a genius!!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea!!! Last year, I made a red light and green light sign and hung it on the wall outside my room...red light means go back to bed! Green light mean Come on in. It wasn't perfect, though, because it required me getting up to switch it. I've been thinking about something to do this year (same problem....my kids are up SO early) and this sounds perfect! Thanks for the idea.
ReplyDeleteI LOOOOVE this ideas! What a genius you are. I am passing this along to my sister for her 5 kids under 9. I know she would love it.
ReplyDeleteThat's a GREAT idea!! Too bad my 2 year old might be too young to understand that yet (and too strong-willed!)
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