Posts
Category: Children
Age Range: 3-7 years old
Price: $34.99
Ship Time: 3-5 business days
In today's world of hectic schedules and appointments, we are always in a hustle, as are our children!! We whisk them off to school, then to practices and church and whatever else is on the appointment book that day that we often forget that they too need a way to manage their time.
TimeBuddy is a unique approach toward helping children aged 3-7 to understand the concept of time, without first having to learn how to tell time. The clock arrives disassembled, and with adult supervision and assistance, your child will choose how to decorate the entire clock with the provided stickers. They will choose which color to use for the outer rim, and then they can add a cute smiley face if they desire and then beginning choosing from 150 different removable stickers that help identify the activity they need to do at a certain time. Then, three different alarms can be set to alert the child when certain activities need to be done! This alarm can be personalized with the child's name and a cute prerecorded message from TimeBuddy (which really makes this "buddy" come to life). This one of a kind product offers children a tool toward learning time management skills and helps them become familiar with daily routines.
TimeBuddy has won several awards-
- National Parenting Association Seal of Approval
- Dr. Toy Winner: 10 Best High Tech Products for 2010
-and TimeBuddy has partnered with leading child psychologist, Penny Bernath, to help educate parents in the best methods to utilize TimeBuddy and teach time management skills to your child. This valuable information will be available by following TimeBuddy on Twitter or Facebook, and it is here that you can "Ask the Expert" and have your questions answered.
TimeBuddy features include the following:
• 150+ activity and decorative stickers
• 16-page activity book with 4 non-toxic washable coloring markers
• 24-hour quartz movement
• LCD digital clock
• 3 alarm settings and date/ time (12- and 24-hour modes)
• LED dial lights (night light mode)
• Language choice (English, Spanish, and French)
• Up to 15 seconds message record/play
• Up to 5 second name record/play
• Removable base
• Wall mount feature / Carry handle
• Lens release button
• ABS impact-resistant plastic construction
Watch the following video to learn more about the concept of TimeBuddy!
• 16-page activity book with 4 non-toxic washable coloring markers
• 24-hour quartz movement
• LCD digital clock
• 3 alarm settings and date/ time (12- and 24-hour modes)
• LED dial lights (night light mode)
• Language choice (English, Spanish, and French)
• Up to 15 seconds message record/play
• Up to 5 second name record/play
• Removable base
• Wall mount feature / Carry handle
• Lens release button
• ABS impact-resistant plastic construction
Watch the following video to learn more about the concept of TimeBuddy!
Our Experience: I chose to use TimeBuddy with my son, even though he already knows how to tell time and is beyond the recommended age range. He is eight years old, however he has sensory processing disorder and can become very agitated if things in his life are not on a strict schedule. He has to have his day planned to some degree...not minute by minute, but in enough of a schedule where he feels his day is "complete". He must have tv time, free time, and reading time. If any of those things is not in day, it is a melt down at bedtime. The solution to this had always been to remind him of the time constantly. Such as: "It's 8:00, if you are going to watch TV, you have 30 minutes to do so" or "It's 4:00 and we leave for church in one hour. Please read now or you will not get time". These prompts worked, but at eight years old, I wanted him to become more responsible for his own time management. Although he knows how to tell time, he doesn't remember to look at the clock and then fails to allow himself enough time to do things and before he realizes it, it's bed time. With the TimeBuddy, we marked when he needs to watch tv, when he would leave for church, when he would leave for school, and when he needed to start getting ready for bed, plus a lot more. We set the alarms for when he wakes up in the morning and when he needs to start getting ready for bed.
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| Actual product received: Click to enlarge |
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| Actual product received: Click to enlarge. |
Day One: The alarm sounded to wake him up for school. He arose on his own, was dressed and out of his bedroom within five minutes and eating breakfast...all before his sister even woke up! This allowed him 30 minutes of cartoons before the bus arrived. The first night, the TimeBuddy alarm went off to alert him to start getting ready for bed. He hadn't watched TV yet and was upset that he had missed his TV time. I showed him again on the clock when he needed to start watching tv. He went to bed that night a little upset, but understood why he didn't have time to watch tv.
Day Two: Today he took the time to look at the clock and alerted me to when we should be starting supper. "Mom, TimeBuddy says I should be eating supper", so off I went to the kitchen. That evening, he came to me and said "I just put up all my toys because TimeBuddy says it's time to watch TV". A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
TimeBuddy saved us on several occasions over the next couple months. There have been three times when my alarm clock failed to go off to get the kids up for school and my son has awoken me because his alarm had told him to get up!!! He came to me the first time and said "mom, TimeBuddy says it's time to get up...are we late?" Indeed, we almost were, but I managed to get them out the door in plenty of time because of my son and TimeBuddy! Another time, he came and told me that TimeBuddy says it's time for church, and even though there is no alarm set to alert him of this, it showed me that he indeed did look at the clock to tell him how to manage his time. This concept was WORKING!!!
Is this one of those products that the novelty wears off and the child is no longer interested??? The answer to that is "NO", plain and simple. I received my TimeBuddy at the end of September and my son has learned how to use his time more productively during the time frame of a few months. Yes, we have had setbacks. We have days where he melts down over his time management choices. We have nights where he still complains at bedtime, but we have more good nights then bad nights and this is a huge improvement!!
I recommend this for preschools and young children and also for any child that needs a little motivation toward improving their time management skills. It is so much easier to explain to a child that they have made the decision to not use their time wisely when they have a visual tool that assists them with their time management. It puts some of the responsibility on them and teaches them to make good decisions. I have seen my son not play his playstation because he would not have time to read if he chose to play the game, and it's the little things like this that make me love this product so much!!! I give it my seal of approval!!!
Where to Buy: TimeBuddy website and Amazon.com
FTC guidelines require that I received a TimeBuddy at no cost to me to facilitate this review. No monetary compensation was received. All opinions herein are my own honest opinions. Other opinions may vary. Please see the Legal page for a full disclosure, disclaimer and full giveaway rules and regulations!
