My sister-in-law and I have boys about the same age with the same temperament. We both have struggled with getting them to willingly go to bed, take a nap, sit in time out, etc. You know, the usual toddler stuff. When my SIL told about how they brought out a timer for their boy, and how it has worked extremely well for him, I got straight to work finding a fun timer for “Rocket”!
Look at this Stoplight Golight! So cute! This guy can be plugged into the wall, or made portable by inserting four AAA batteries.
When you start the timer by adding in the amount of time you desire, the red light comes on. When the time is up, the green light glows and an optional bell will ding. This timer has been great for my boy! I think he does so well with it because it is a visual and audible indication of when it is time to end one thing and start another. Its hard for 2-year-olds to grasp any length of time like “five more minutes”, but with a familiar light indicator, we haven’t had any tantrums when its time to go to bed!
I do think it would be cool if the yellow light worked, but I totally understand the company’s explanation that a functional yellow light was sucking up the battery life too quickly, and that having a reliable, portable timer was most important. I also wish that I could change the settings to start with the green light on, and then a change to the red, as in “stop what you’re doing, time is up”, but remembering “green means go” and “Go to bed” is cool too.
I really like the size of this light. It measures 3.5″ by 5.5″ by 2″. I was picturing something huge when I saw the photos from their website, but this can sit cutely on our entertainment center and not look obnoxious. Right now, we are only using it as a ‘time-to-go-to-bed’ timer and a ‘pick-up-for-3-minutes’ timer, but I can certainly see more uses as “Rocket” gets older, such as remembering to brush your 2 minutes, spend 30 minutes reading, or even stay in bed until 7am! (You can set the timer for 0-15 hrs. and 0-59 minutes!) This is going to be one well-loved timer in our household!
The buttons are easy to figure out and use, and the child proof buttons on the side allow for only the parent to change settings, without the child adding or subtracting time himself. The top left bell button indicates whether a chime will go off when time is up.
…
We sure love this timer! You can purchase your own online below for $29.95.
…
Here is a coupon code for our readers! When you order from stoplightgolight.com, enter Dandy into the coupon code and receive 30% off your timer order.  The coupon is good till 9/21.
Online Store
…
*The product(s) in this review was provided to me free of cost for the purpose of conducting this review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own are not influenced by monetary compensation.Â