Get More Sleep with an Alarm Clock That Tells Your Kids When It’s “OK to Wake”

Patch Products provided a complimentary sample for review.  All opinions are 100% my own.

If you have kids, I bet you’re already familiar with the story I’m about to tell:

It’s late.  Very late.  Close to midnight.  You’ve had an exhausting day, and falling into bed feels like the most amazing thing in the world.  Finally, some rest, some sleep!  Until your daughter comes bouncing into bed with you at 3:00 AM, waking you from your beautiful slumber, taking her time getting comfortable and, seemingly, settling in for the night.  It was cute the first time or twelve, but it became a huge frustration in short order.

And when you offer the voice of dissent and send your kids back to their own beds, suddenly you’re the bad guy and you may even feel guilty.  But what’s a tired parent to do?

I tried the Teach Me Time! Talking Alarm Clock & Night-Lite from the Patch’s OK to Wake! line of products.

This clock has been a real sleep saver!  It has several functions:  it works as a talking bedside alarm clock, a time-teaching tool, and a dual-colored night-lite.

My favorite feature of this clock is the lighting.  I can set three separate times on the clock to make it cycle exactly how I want:

I first set the “On” time, which is the time I want the yellow night-light to come on.  If I know I want my daughter in bed at 9:00, I can set the night-light for that time.  We do our normal bedtime routine of stories, songs, and some talking–and my daughter is quite the talker.  She’ll go on and on and on, and I getting her to stop and settle down is no easy feat.  But when that light comes on, she knows it’s time to for me to leave and for her to wander off to dreamland.

Yellow night-lite means “time to sleep”

The second setting is the “Change” time, which is the time you set for the green wake-up light to come on.  If you want your child to stay in bed until 8:00, just set your change time for then, and that’s when the yellow glow changes to green.  Since you’ve taught your kiddos they have to stay in bed until the light turns green, they now have a visual cue to let them know.  Plus, it means you don’t have to fuss at them to stay in bed; the clock itself tells them, and you can avoid conflict.

Glowing green light means “it’s OK to wake!”

And the third setting is simply the “Off” setting, which you use to tell the clock when to turn off all the lights (i.e. after your child has had time to get out of bed).  It’s so easy!

The other awesome feature of this clock is the time-teaching game.  You probably noticed that this is a traditional clock with hour and minute hands, and the included game (the clock talks to your kids to help them out) is an excellent tool to help with teaching time. I especially like that it has skill-levels, so as your child progresses, the game does too.  And don’t worry:  if your child has trouble telling time, a digital time is listed below the dial.  This is also really handy, because it lets your child compare the dial to the digital; that way they can tell if the time they think it is actually matches the real time.  The clock will also talk to you and announce the time if you tap its foot.

Finally, this clock functions as a totally normal alarm clock.  When your kids feel too old for the light-up features, you can just set a time for the alarm to sound.  It also includes a snooze button!

So far we’ve really loved this clock.  It’s keeping the kids in bed until time for them to wake up, and it’s been a great help in teaching my daughter to tell time.  I definitely recommend it, whether you need it to help keep the kids in bed until a reasonable hour, or if you just want a fun light-up clock to help teach time.  I think you’ll love it as much as we do!

To learn more about the Teach Me Time! clock, check out the Patch Products website where you can also find the full line of OK to Wake! products.  Connect with them on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on their products and promotions.