When I left my job as a teacher, I was cleaning up my room & a student of mine lamented that I was packing my classroom timer to take with me. He said, “Not my baby!” as I put it into my box of things. I guess one could say that he loves timers almost as much as I do. And the reason that he did lament it’s going was because of how much it was used and respected in my classroom.

Come into the room, sign in on the daily attendance sheet and take your seat. Once the bell rings, the timer is immediately set for 7 minutes; time enough for them to finish the introduction problem posted for the day. When the timer rings, there is no arguing about what comes next. It’s time to check the “do now.”

Timers are a most wonderful invention. Not only to make sure you boil the egg for long enough, but also for empowering your kids to follow directions and to learn self-monitoring skills. They can be used for timing a time out. They can be used to indicate that it’s time to go to bed, eat supper, get dressed; you name it! They can also be used to give kids a feeling of control. My favorite trick currently is to promote “start” behaviors with a little bit of timer.

When faced with the (seemingly) inevitable, “But I don’t want to take a bath (or fill in the blank) !!,” you give them the feeling of choice by introducing the timer into it.

You: “Well my friend, the choice is this…I can set the timer for 5 minutes and you can take your bath when it rings, or you can go up now.”

Kid: “I choose neither!”

You: “If you choose neither, then I make the choice for you and my choice will be now.”

Kid: (Almost invariably) “5 minutes please.”

Once the timer rings, I try not to say anything as much as possible. I will take the still ringing timer to wherever the child is and let it ring until it gets their attention. Since the timer is telling them that it’s time for their bath and not me, they can’t argue with it! Magic! And my results have been smooth. Kids can police themselves and follow rules that are set out for them without adults yelling at them to do so. I’ve seen it firsthand.

Another thing that I love about timers is their ability to comfort controlling or anxious children. I have also recently been using a timer with a friend of mine who sometimes has trouble leaving the house. He feels comfortable at the house and isn’t always a great sport about going elsewhere, especially if that elsewhere isn’t going to be someplace fun for him. So I give him warnings as to upcoming changes. I tell him how long it will be before he has to leave, usually only mentioning it if it’s getting to be about the 30 minute mark (he’s school aged, so I’ve taken his maturity level into account; with younger kids, I would do a shorter amount of time) . As with many kids, once he’s engaged in an activity he is not so keen on being disrupted, so knowing that a disruption is inevitable is a little way to help him deal with it. On more than one occasion, I have told him that he’ll have to leave in about 30 minutes and then have asked him if he would like me to set the timer for him. He has always answered yes. And on our last timed afternoon, he carried the timer with him, informing me how much more time he had to play or color. With about 2 more minutes left on the timer, he knew the end was near, so he got ready to head out of his own accord. I didn’t have to nag him about getting his shoes on or getting ready. He did it himself because he had a tool to help him.

Timers can help bring peace, even despite a little relentless beeping. And if that’s not a reason to love them, then I don’t know what is.