Let a traffic light tell your toddlers when to stay in bed and when it's okay to get out.

How about using a traffic stoplight to tell your young child when to stay in bed and when to get up? When a lot of people are almost doing that with the Stoplight Sleep Enhancing Clock. This is a fun and simple way to teach toddlers that green not only means “go”, it also means “it’s okay to get up and out of bed." At a very young age, toddlers know their colors. So they’ll also understand that red means stop and “don’t get out of bed, and don’t wake mommy and daddy”. The Stoplight Sleep Enhancing Clock has a real kid friendly design. It’s a nicely crafted sculpted figure in a cute little car parked next to a stoplight. The stoplight features red, yellow and green lights. The red and green lights are controlled by the alarm that parents can easily set. (But pay attention to that tiny green LED light, bottom right. When it’s lit, the digital clock is in the PM mode.) The digital clock can just use the traffic lights to let your kids when to stay and when to get out of bed, or you also use the optional alarm function. The yellow traffic light has it own switch and can be used as a nightlight, a nice touch. The company says pediatricians recommend this clock, which makes sense. I think it’s pretty clever. From reading reviews on Amazon it seems folks are using it for toddlers from about 18 months on up. A few commented that the construction of the clock is not great, but mine seems fine. (It is imported from China.) There’s a boy driving a car version and a girl driving a car version. On Amazon I also saw a version with a dog on a scooter, or a cat on a scooter version too. Cost is $39.99.  (The dog and cat version seemed to be about $6 cheaper.) I haven’t bought anything at the Amazon link below, but you can start your search there:

http://www.amazon.com/Stoplight-Sleep-Enhancing-Clock-Sports/dp/B002TKLN46/ref=pd_bxgy_hg_img_b