All three of our kiddos share one room. Mostly, I love it. There are times when it’s not so great. Like when one of them wakes up the rest.
That had been happening a lot recently. Lil’ A was sleeping less hours and had long ago learned to climb out of her crib (which my other kids never did!). So she was waking up and getting out too early most mornings. I was starting to feel like I’d never know when I might find her out of bed, and doing who knows what?! We were all getting frustrated with her, especially Sweet N, who would be woken up most mornings when A would climb into her bunk bed to snuggle with her. Oh my!
So on a whim I explained to A one evening how this colored clock works that we’ve had for the big kids for awhile.
It’s one of those nifty clocks that you can set to change colors at a certain time of day (ours is 7am) so that kids who can’t get read time know when it’s okay to get out of bed. Keep in mind that she doesn’t really even know her colors, so I did NOT expect her to understand.
When will I learn.
Anyway I explained to her that she needs to stay in bed until the clock changes colors and turns green in the morning. Then I put her to bed. And I had no expectations.
But she got it!! I was in shock.
It wasn’t 100%, but she definitely understood.
She’d run out at 7am sharp yelling “Cwock turn geen! Cwock turn geen!”
So I quickly put a reward system in place… a sticker for each morning she stayed in bed until 7am… five stickers earned her ice cream!
She understood that too, of course.
And she quickly earned her five stickers and her ice cream! And we all rejoiced.
She seriously blows me away. She’s so stinkin’ smart! I’m very proud of her. And I’m very glad we’re all getting a bit more sleep now…
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