Have You Tried a "OK to Wake Alarm" Clock?

My sister always used a nightlight on a timer and told the kids they. Ouldnt leave their rooms until the light turned off (you can get outlet timers at Target or Walmart).
We actually bought my son a regular alarm clock- its Lego Darth Vader. We started using it about 6 months ago, right before turning 3. He knows to push the head to turn the alarm off (it really just snoozes, then we turn it off when we go in his room). It helps, especially on the mornings we have to wake him up to get going somewhere, as he takes quite a bit to really wake up (about 30 minutes)

Our son had a problem with waking up really early every morning because he didn't know what time it was. We bought him the Good Night Light,
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Nite-Lite-900-381/dp/B002N4IN0...

and it was a lifesaver! It's kind of expensive (in my opinion), I think it's around $35 or so, but it was worth every penny! Basically, you set it to come on at night at bedtime, and it is a blue moon, and then it stays a blue moon until morning when it turns to an orange sun. He learned very quickly that he wasn't supposed to get out of bed until his sun came on. It really worked for us. Good luck!

i have it for my 5 year old, it really helps keep him in his room because he knows not to come out before the light is green. I'm not sure a smaller child would get it, but i love having it for my son.

we have the Ok to Wake clock and I have to tell you, it is the BEST. I was going to buy one from one step ahead that is a similar concept, but in the reviews people hated how hard it was to set the "wake up" time, and that it had to be plugged in, and could not run on batteries. this was a great point because when the power goes out, it shuts down. the Ok to wake clock could not be more easy to set, runs only on batteries (which makes traveling with it really easy) and it can be an alarm clock also, for when the child is older. the greatest part is how proud my daughter is when she is carrying her green, glowing clock into my bedroom in the morning saying "look, mommy! it's green!" - she somehow never gets tired of this... (she is 3). I have to say, of all the kid things out there, this one has helped us a lot. she used to wake up whenever she noticed it was a little bit light out and then feel so sad when I made her go back to bed, but now she understands that her clock needs to be green before she can leave her room. Go ahead and buy it!

We just bought a clock like that for my four year old to start using the alarm. I didn't have it when she was younger. But I agree with Jenni G. We used that same night light and it worked great when she was younger. I would go with that and save the clock for when he is older.

I got a My Tot Clock for my son when he was 3 & it's been amazing! Here's the website: http://www.mytotclock.com. They even have a money-back guarantee, which is nice since I think it's something around $50. But it's been worth it. He is 5 now & still comes running out of his room in the morning & after naptime saying "it turned yellow!" It's blue when it is "in bed" time & turns yellow when it's OK to wake up. The clock has a timer that works for naptime & it also has a red timeout & green "encouragement" lights, but we've never used them. It took awhile to get him used to it, but it didn't take as long as I'd expected, & it stopped him from waking everyone up at 7am every morning!