The my tot clock is quite possibly our all time FAVORITE purchase for our daughter. We’ve been using it since she was 18 months old, and we plan on using one pretty much from birth with our next child. This clock is amazing and has made so many of our transitions go incredibly smoothly.
When I was first researching ok to wake clocks, there were lots of other clocks that were much cheaper than this one. I had a really hard time getting over the price, initially.
I am glad I stuck with my gut, however, and chose the My Tot Clock above the others. This clock has a ton of features, and we utilize most of them!
We started using the my tot clock when Caroline was 18 months old. This seemed to be the perfect age for us! It then helped Caroline make a seamless transition into her big girl bed!
So, let’s talk about all of the amazing features of the my tot clock and what it does!
– The clock:
The clock itself shows both an analog and digital version of the time. This means nothing to my toddler at the moment, but when she is old enough to learn how to tell time, she’ll have a great little clock to look at and learn from!
– The nightlight:
Many children like the security and comfort of having a nightlight in their bedrooms.
With the my tot clock, you can choose to keep the light on all night long, or you can choose to put it in power save mode and turn off after a set amount of time (of your choosing). You can also choose how bright the light is! I love how many options this product gives for such a simple thing such as a light!
– Bedtime with the my tot clock:
For bedtime, you set the time of day that you want bedtime to start. If you don’t have a set bedtime, you should strongly consider one for consistency purposes.
We chose 7 pm for when our bedtime routine starts. At that time, the dark blue light comes on. If you’ve chosen to have it only stay on for a certain amount of time, it goes off accordingly, otherwise it stays on all night.
When the light comes on, you can choose to have music play, a story be read, or even white noise can play. You can choose the length that each of these play for, and you can even buy inserts to change the story or music that is offered!
When we first started with the clock, we had the music play. This served as an alert to direct Caroline’s attention to the clock, and she’d then notice that the blue light was on! It was perfect.
There is a different setting for naps, and the clock utilizes a lighter blue… I wouldn’t be able to tell you which was on (nap or bed) if I didn’t know the time probably! But I like that the color is consistent for sleep. Blue is time to sleep, plain and simple.
Caroline caught on pretty quickly that blue meant bed (in any sense).
Naps are set a little differently. You set the time that you want the nap to last for. I chose 3 hours. As a result, the blue light stays on for 3 hours.
To start nap time, all I have to do is click the light blue button on the top of the clock (tap and then hold). This is perfect since naps don’t start at exactly the same time every day and we have a little bit of flexibility with the time.
Note: You can also override the bedtime blue if you want it to go on earlier than you have it already set to, by doing the tap and hold technique as well!
– Wake time with the my tot clock:
I really should call this something else, because anytime the clock finishes a function (bed, nap, timeout, independent play, etc) it turns yellow. I guess I should call it the “all finished” color!
If I had one tweak to the clock, I’d make this color green instead of yellow. Caroline already knows that “green means go”, so it would have been a nice touch. In any case, the color serves its purpose.
When the clock turns yellow, Caroline knows that is ok to get out of bed, or that she’s finished with her independent play, etc. It is a great visual cue for her. We tell her every nap and every bedtime, that she is to stay in bed until her clock turns yellow. It works like a charm!
– Red light:
The red light is similar to the nap time function in that you set a time (1 min, 2 mins, etc.) The manufacturer has this designated as a timeout function, but the reality is you can use these colors (blue, red and green) for any function you’d like.
You tap and hold, it comes on for the time you’ve set, and when the time is over it turns yellow. Caroline has only had 1 timeout so far, so she doesn’t yet know what red really means.
– Green light:
The green light function is again a time that is set on the clock for a certain length. We’ve chosen to use this as Caroline’s “room time” (independent play). We set ours for 35 minutes, and she stays in her room for playtime until the light turns yellow. Again, you tap and hold to start this function, and could utilize it for any purpose.
Update: we now use the green light for “rest time”. It served as the perfect addition to Caroline’s transition from naps to rest time. She knows that she can nap if she’d like to, but that she only is required to rest. Basically meaning stay in bed and stay quiet.
If you can, start using the my tot clock prior to making the switch from crib to bed, as it will help immensely!
– Give clear expectations and direct their attention to the my tot clock
Tell your child not only what you want them to do, but also what they shouldn’t do. Every night at bed we give Caroline the same reminders. We’ve done this since the day she got it (18 months old), and we still do it at 22 months old.
When it turns blue we started by saying “Caroline look at your clock! It’s blue! Blue means bedtime!”. We’d then start our bedtime routine. Now we say “Caroline, what color is your clock?” She responds by saying “blue”. Half of the time she immediately heads for the bathroom to get ready for bed. If she hasn’t already, we ask her “What does blue mean?”. She responds by saying “Bedtime”.
When she was in her crib, we’d remind her to “Go to bed like a big girl. Stay nice and quiet and close your eyes until your clock is yellow in the morning. Call us if you need something.” We always reminded her of the expectations, but at the same time told her it was ok to call us if she truly needed us.
A week before switching to a big girl bed, we changed our reminder a bit. Instead of the expectation being to stay quiet, it was to stay quiet and stay in bed until the clock was yellow. She is to call us if she needs us and not get out of bed until we let her.
We say the same reminders for nap time.
For room time (or independent play), I set the clock to green, and remind her that “Mama will be back when your clock is yellow.”
She’s heard these reminders every day for 4 months now.
We still always assume she’ll need to hear it. Consistency and repetition is so good for our children to know what we expect.
– Have consequences for not following expectations for the my tot clock
Let’s say your child is crying and screaming for you before the clock is yellow at some point…or perhaps they get out of bed, etc. Our consequence is basically that we do not address her needs until she is calm, and following expectations (staying in bed). We require that she get back into bed. Then we address her needs…
We simply go in and remind Caroline of a few things:
Say “Mama” or “Daddy” instead of crying if you need something
Stay in bed until your clock is yellow (we ask her to get back in before we ask if she needs something)
We then ask if she needs something (if she says potty, water, etc. we assess and make a call based on her needs). If she doesn’t need anything, we remind her that she needs to stay quiet until the clock is yellow. At her age (18 months) we also allow her to read a book quietly in bed.
If she’s taken a decent nap, I’ll often allow her quiet time in her room only if she asks while in bed. I still do not join her in the room until the clock is yellow.
You can manually switch it to yellow if you need to using the tap and hold method mentioned above.
If she doesn’t stop crying, but doesn’t seem to need anything, I just remind her that I’ll be back when the clock is yellow and leave (this is extremely rare). I think once they learn the comfort of the clock telling them when it is time for something, the crying really decreases.
– Reward correct behaviors and couple a sticker chart with the my tot clock
Couple the use of this clock with a reward system. We chose to use a sticker chart. We’ve focused on different things over the last 4 months with her…depending on what she needed help with at the time.
For awhile she had a hard time going to sleep quietly. We chose to focus on going to bed like a big girl when the clock turned blue to start with as a result. We reminded her that if she did, she would get a sticker in the morning.
Find Printable Parenting tools at my SHOP:
When we were making the transition to her big girl bed, we changed our focus to staying in bed until the clock was yellow. She now gets a sticker for staying in bed until the clock turns yellow.
The reward system is a great reinforcement tool for positive behavior. I think it really gives them motivation to use the clock.
You’ll need to find something that is motivating for your child. If stickers aren’t it, find something else that works! And you can, of course, couple stickers with a bigger reward. Perhaps after 3 stickers they get a treat or a toy, etc.
There are so many ok to wake clocks out there. None of them have the capabilities of this clock, however.
The my tot clock far exceeds the competition (if you can even call it that). Yes it’s a bit more expensive.
Yes it’s completely worth the price. Caroline is now 3.5 and we are still going strong with the use of this clock. She loves it and we do to!
