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Getting Your Kids Ready Faster…Smart Home Lighting Hacks

To demonstrate how easy it is to make any home a smart home, we’ve teamed up with Leviton as part of their “Automation for All” campaign.

Smart Home Lighting Hacks
Have you ever noticed how long it takes to get everyone ready when you have to be somewhere? Are you always running late? The hard part for me is that when we are rushing, especially in the mornings, someone ends up feeling stressed, which leads to tempers, arguments, and an unhappy family. The last thing that I want to do is to send our kids to school (or even to bed at night) feeling unnerved. With Leviton’s Decora Smart with Wi-Fi Technology lighting controls, it’s been so easy to implement smart home technology into our home to help alleviate this stress, be in full control and get our family on track each day.

 

Using Decora Smart, we found that these tips below are great for helping kids get ready for school and bed much faster – leading to more organized, safe and less stressful days.

1. Set your Lights & Alarm to turn on at the same time (Using your My Leviton App and your Amazon Alexa) 

Our kids need about 45 minutes to get ready each morning, but if I don’t wake them up in time, they are grumpy as they rush around. I decided to leave it up to them. Using the My Leviton App and Decora Smart Plug-In Outlet, we use the timer setting to control the smaller desk lights in their rooms to turn on at the same time that their Alexa alarm goes off.  Now, I am confident that it will turn on the lights when I set it, so the kids will wake up.

2. Rise and Shine Bright!
If they don’t wake up to the light on their desk, I can also use the My Leviton App to turn on or gradually increase the brightness of their overhead light when I am downstairs through the Decora Smart Dimmer. Much brighter, much better!

 

3.  Lights Turn on Downstairs
In the evening, I never want our kids to walk into a dark room if they wake up before it is bright outside. For this reason, we use our Decora Smart lighting controls to control any light (or appliance) to turn on and off at a set time. In our household, we use the app to set the lights to turn on early in the morning.

4. Time to Go!
When it is time to get going, we set our kids lights to dim and turn off in their bedrooms. We use the app and set each bedroom to dim to off, so they know that it’s time to leave for school.  Our kids love to build, color or play in their rooms if they have spare time before school.  This prevents me from yelling “TIME TO GO!” multiple times and instead the light alerts them for me.

5. Bedtime
The same thing goes for nighttime. After I snuggle with our kids and we talk about their day, I allow them a few minutes to read a book. I set each child’s light in their room to turn off at a specific time, based on age. When the light in their room goes off, they know it’s time to put their book down and go to sleep.  This makes my life easier because I don’t have to constantly ask them to “Put your book away and go to bed.” I know that when it is time for our kids to go to sleep, the light in their room will be off. Again, thanks to Leviton’s Decora Smart lighting controls and the My Leviton App, I am allowed to set these schedules and features.

Smart Home Lighting Hacks
It’s a great feeling having saved time, efficiency, and convenience on your side. We have installed Leviton’s high-quality, safe and reliable Decora Smart products in every room in our home. They are easy to install and add long-term value to any home – Leviton has been proving this for over 100 years. Leviton has given us the ability to install Decora Smart products in our house, which gives us a great feeling of control & makes life so much easier!

To learn more about Decora Smart, visit www.leviton.com/decorasmart. You can also find these products ate at Amazon.com and HomeDepot.com

 

 

Hi there!

I’m Becky, a former elementary school teacher turned certified child development therapist and blogger. I work at home with my husband and together we are raising (and partially homeschooling) our four children in the Carolinas. I love diet coke, ice cream, and spending time with my family.

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