With kids in the house, one challenge is getting them to sleep +during the night and wake up when it is morning. I mean, when I +believe it is morning, and not two hours earlier. In our household we +have decided that 07:00 is the turning point, but getting the kids to +sleep until 07:00 is a small challenge every day. They have adapted +quite well, and rarely wake up at 05:00 any more, but some times wake +up at times like 05:50, 06:15, 06:30 or 06:45, and it is hard to put +the awake one to bed again without disturbing and waking the rest. +And I understand perfectly well that they fail to sleep until 07:00 +some times, as there is no way for them to know if it is before or +after the magic moment without coming and asking us parents.
+ +But yesterday I came up with a method to solve this problem. It +involve home automation. A few years ago I bought a +Tellstick and RF +switches at the local Clas +Ohlson shop, allowing me to control lights and other electrical +gadgets using my Linux server. When I moved from the old flat to a +small house, I put away all this equipment as most of the lighting in +the house was not using wall sockets and thus not easy to connect to +the gadgets I had. But recently I bought a +Tellstick +Net to be able to read sensor input as well as control power +sockets. I want to control ovens in the basement to avoid the pipes +to freeze, and monitor the humidity to detect flooding. The default +setup for Tellstick Net is to be controlled by the vendor web service, +which to me is a security problem, but it is also possible to build +ones own +firmware +with local access instead of being controlled by a Swedish +company, thanks to the release of the GPL licensed firmware source +code. I plan to get that running before I let it control anything +important. But while working on this, one idea to make it easier for +the kids came to me yesterday. We can set up a night light controlled +by the computer, and turn it automatically on at 07:00. The kids can +then check the light in the morning to know if they are supposed to +get up or not. They joined me in setting everything up, and I +repeated the concept several times before bed times to make sure they +remembered to check the light before getting up in the morning.
+ +We tested it this morning, and all the kids stayed in bed until +after 07:00, and every one of them commented on the fact that the +"morning light" was turned on and signalled that the morning had +arrived. So this look like a success, and I am excited to see how +this develops the next few days. :) I really hope this can allow us +all to sleep a bit longer in the morning.
+ +A nice advantage of this setup is that we can remote control when +to tell the kids to get up. We do not have to wait until 07:00, and +can also delay it if we want to.
+ +