Learning Resources Time Tracker Mini Visual Timer, Classroom Timer, Hand Washing Timer, Auditory and Visual Cue, Ages 3+

I have a four-year old who loves to dally. When she wants to get a task done, it only takes her 3 minutes, but sometimes she can go for 3 hours and still not have it finished. Trying to set limits on her is difficult, because she doesn't really understand the concept of time yet. Using other timers, even cute ones, has always resulted in a major meltdown, because she feels as if her time is almost up from the moment we press start - even after repeated assurance that she has more than enough time to complete the task at hand. This timer has worked miracles in our house. . . she knows she's being timed, and that when her time is up there will be consequences, but as long as the light is green, she stays on task and doesn't freak out about it. Being able to set a warning bell/light is genius - she understands that now is the time to rush to get it done before it goes red, and though from time to time we do have orange-light meltdowns, they've been far less frequent than with our old timers or with no timer at all. It has made a huge difference. Having a concrete thing to mark the end leads to much less arguing and begging for a little bit more time. You might be able to sway mommy with tears, but a timer is a machine - when it turns red she can't plead with it for more time. Life has gone on much more smoothly for us since we got this awesome little timer! You'd think she'd hate it, but she actually really loves it, and ASKS us to set it for things that we wouldn't normally. I DO wish that it could be set for smaller increments - at least that the warning light could be set in single minutes instead of increments of 5 - so that we could use it to mark when it's time to give someone else a turn with a toy, but as it is, I love it and highly recommend it to anyone going through a similar problem. We use it mostly for room cleaning (it doesn't take 4 hours anymore!), getting ready to leave the house (be ready in 15 minutes, shoes and all!), to set limits on time spent on her computer, and to keep her in her room during quiet time - she doesn't come out every 3 minutes anymore, because she can see that it isn't time yet!

I read all the reviews and found them to be true to a point. When I first got it and put the batteries in... It didn't work like in other reviews... Changing the batteries didn't work... Flipping them around didn't work... but then I rubbed/cleaned the battery contacts and boom! Worked like a charm. The other issue is that the green and yellow dials are not intuitive as mentioned in other reviews when it comes to setting times but it becomes less of an issue the longer you use it. As far as what I got it for and how functional it is... Well, I am using it to help myself and patients maintain timeliness during appointments. With some prefacing and education, it has been well received by patients... both during the appointment and in how patients like being seen on time. It gives both auditory and visual queues that may be internalized at future encounters as it anecdotally appears Later visits are easier to maintain timeliness and we have time to spare to address other issues. Another physician recently bought one and we are looking at doing a quality review and patient survey. If it objectively shows improvements and good patient reviews, we may implement this in the whole clinic.

Great tool for helping out toddler remember to use the potty regularly, or set time limits for activities. Love being able to set a gentle yellow light 'warning' alarm and a more firm 'now we mean business' red light alarm. I have a couple gripes about how it works - First, you need to completely turn it off and on again vial the on/off/volume dial in order to set a new alarm. It's a nuisance more than anything - why not just hit the 'start' button on the front? Second, it seems that once the timer is set and running, just tapping the start button at any time resets the timer. So if you pick it up to move it and bump the button, you start over (and with no indication of how much time is left, how do you know how long to reset it for?). Being cool-looking, colorful, and illuminated, kids will want to grab it so of course the start button will be hit repeatedly, making it useless as a timer. It would be more useful if starting/restarting the timer required a 5-secong hold or something. But overall, if you can keep it just out of reach but close enough to see/hear, it's a very useful tool.

We purchased the Mini due to other reviewers commenting on how confusing the larger one was to program. We wanted the timer for our son for this morning school routine (dressing, eating, etc). Now let me say that I am an engineer and reasonably good at problem solving. However, this timer, which has only a green and yellow adjuster really perplexed me for about a week. I eventually sat down with a stop watch to figure this thing out because it does not come with directions. For all of the other parents out there, here is how it works. The green band sets your total time. If you only want 5 min then the timer will go from green directly to red after 5 min no yellow. For 15 min, the green band is on 15, etc. That's not so bad, I would have thought that the green band set the time of the green light but nope, green band is the total time. The yellow band sets the duration of the green light. So illogical, but if you want 10 min of green and 5 min of yellow you have to set the green band to 15 and the yellow one to 10. Rather than the yellow band setting the duration of the yellow light, you have to do the math and subtract the green band which is really the total time from the yellow band which is really the green light to get the yellow time. Confused? Yep, we were too. I hope this helps lessen the confusion, it really is a great tool and works wonders, but is so frustratingly illogical to use. I'm happy to have it but wish it were more intuitive.

I purchased this timer for my son and I to use to remind us when it was time for him to use the potty. After using it, I feel like I will add it to my classroom too. The light on top served as a great visual for those who can't read yet. Red means stop and green means go. If the light changing wasn't clue enough for us the beeping was the attention-getter. Loud but not loud enough to scare you. The timer is extremely easy to use and any child five and up could easily use it. Learning Resources is one of my favorite brands and this item did not disappoint. The only thing I didn't like, was that we had to restart it every time rather than it beginning again as soon as the alarm was turned off. I wish there was a button to make it repeat to save on time.

I have two daughters, ages 11.5 and 9.5. The older one has a plethora of behavioral challenges (Oppositional defiant disorder, ADHD, learning disabilities, etc). She is a CHALLENGING child. I think her brain is set on Groundhog Day mode because what she is told one day, she has completely and totally forgotten by the next day. My other daughter is a dreamer. She loves to look at the sun, the fuzz-ball on her pj's, how the water swishes down the drain, etc. As you can imagine, it takes her FOREVER to complete a task. In her case, it's not out of defiance or disobedience, it's just daydreaming. For her, this Time Tracker Mini has been a God-send. We set the timer to "remind" her after 10 minutes to get out of the shower and the second it goes off, she turns off the water. Then the second timer kicks and and she is dressed and downstairs eating breakfast before the second 10 minutes. It used to take her nearly an hour to do this with constant yelling and reminding. She loves having the visual and audible reminder to keep her on track and feels good about beating the timer. For her it's wonderful. For my other daughter, she bucks authority so it doesn't work as well for her. She will just ignore the timer and say she didn't hear it, will turn it off and claim it's broken, etc. The child has to be motivated to want to do the right thing in order for devices like these to be helpful. So, if your child is like my younger daughter, I think you will get a great deal of use out of this amazing and easy to use little device. We use it every day and haven't had to change the batteries yet. The alarm sound is loud but not startling, even at the highest volume. It's easy to set and easy to use. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who has a little dreamer on their hands.

Huge disappointment. Poor quality, and bad overall design. Let's start with poor quality: the first Time Tracker we received stop telling proper time within 2 weeks - so I sent it back in exchange for a new one, hoping that it was just a fluke.The second one worked, albeit with an audible rattle of something loose inside, but only long enough to get us just outside of the return policy window. Now it's broken, this time it just won't turn on, and I'm stuck with it. SO IRRITATED! Next time I won't give things a second try. Now, let's cover the overall bad design: the way the time is intended to be used is with 3 colors, but only 2 time settings. So you choose you're overall time (let's say 30 minutes), and then you choose when you want the timer to turn yellow (let's say in 15 minutes) - and then the assumption is that it will turn red when time is up. Didn't seem like all that bad an idea until I tried putting it into practice. Right away the kids seemed confused when the timer turned red when I set it to turn yellow at 15 minutes - 15 minutes was just too long. They were having a hard time predicting when the light would go red, most likely because they forgot all about it. And then when it does turn red - that's it, no more, time is up, and the frustrated yells began. So then I started shortening the time to turn yellow at 5 minutes. Seemed to help the confusion as they knew that red was coming soon when it did turn yellow, but it didn't give the kids much time to finish their work if they had been lagging. I used to have a kitchen timer that flashed red for the last minute and then it would go off. I'd love it if this timer had that ability - a third bracket of time that I can control so that the kids had something more like: 30 minutes total, 15 minutes of green, 10 minutes of yellow (to wrap up if they happen to be lagging), and 5 minutes flashing red to move really fast on any last minute things. Between the 2 defective units in a row, and the disappointing lack of flexibility, I couldn't recommend this product to anyone. Save yourself the money and frustration.

I think of this timer as one of my "best friends," along with my Fitbit and my phone. I have two, one for home and one for work. It's great for adults who need a sense of control but also may have mild ADD or simply a brain that notices everything and is interested in everything. I bought my first one to prevent myself from being late for meetings at work. Just because I remember at 9:45 that I have a 10:00 meeting doesn't mean I still remember this at 9:55 (I could have started reading an article and I no longer know I need to go to a meeting.) I use it to time everything: how long I meditate, how long I jog, how much time I can "permit" myself to look at Instagram, how much of a film I can watch before I have to start doing a chore. If I am using the kitchen timer for one food prep item that needs to be timed, I can use this for another food item that also needs to be timed. If I can't find my flashlight I use this as a substitute. I have even used it as a light in a tent. I have had mine for 5 years and neither has broken. Batteries last so long that I forget it even runs on batteries. When the batteries run lower it still works -- it's just that the green light becomes faint.