In Our House We Call It "Sweet Manna From Heaven"

I first read about the On Task On Time unit over at Work It Mom.

I spent the next 30 minutes figuring out how to get my hands on one, and then sent a barrage of pestering emails to their PR department.

A few days later, FedEx delivered salvation to my front door.

Let me back up.

I have two kids.

Every day, both of these children have to get out of bed, get dressed, get fed, get stuff, and get out the door to school or daycare.  At the exact same time that I have to get up, get dressed, get fed, get stuff and get out the door to work.

It makes for fun mornings – if nagging and crying and threatening and crying and begging and pleading and crying and starting off every day pissed off and crying is fun for you.

(In which case, you need therapy.)

At the end of each day, I still have two kids (knock on wood).

And now they need to be fed and bathed and brushed and put back into bed – but only after they’ve been brow beaten into homework and chores and picking up after themselves.

See previous statements about fun.

Of course, this is just all par for the course for parenting – right?

WRONG!

That is par for the course for sucker parents who don’t have the On Task On Time For Kids thingy!

Sorry.  I’m getting ahead of myself with the gloating.

Do you remember those old Speak & Says?  This unit looks a lot like one of those.  Except it comes with replacable disks that you put little stickers on to customize your kids’ routines.  You wind it up and it counts down, making a delightful tic tic tic tic tic, and then “DING!” when time is up.

When you get the unit, you sit down with your kids and figure out what “tasks” they have.  In our house, it’s things like “chores” and “brush teeth” and “take bath”.  You then decide – with your kids – how long each task should take.

Important tip: the point is not to rush your kids.  The point is to keep them on task.  Give them ample time to do what needs to be done.

Anyway, once youv’e decided together what needs to be done and how long it should take, you follow the instructions to place the stickers onto one of the removable disks in the order and interval you want them.

And then you wind it up and watch them go!

We’ve been using this for a few weeks in my house now and everyone LOVES it.  The kids love the idea of beating the clock, I love not having to nag them.  When I see them screwing around, all I have to say is “are you going to make the timer?”, and they get back on task.  They don’t have to ask me “what now?” or “what did you say?” 50 million times – they can go find see for themselves what they need to do.

Added bonus: my husband and I are not parenting the kids at the same time right now, but we set this disk up together.  I know (and, OK, so does he, but I highly doubt he worries about it) that the basic child care stuff is getting done even when I’m not there.  (Not that I’m controlling or anything.  Really.  Not at all.)

The unit comes with 3 disks.  We use one for morning and one for bed time.  It also uses stickers with pictures so even my four year old can follow along.  It has blank stickers in case you have really crazy unique needs.

I love the crap out of this thing.

Some other stuff to consider:

• It’s recommended for ages 5-10.  I have a 9 year old and a 4 year old, and I can imagine it might be a little difficult for my 4 year old to do alone, but she does pretty well following her brother’s lead.  I think he could use it well past his 10th year.
• There’s a place to keep track of their “progress” on the back – basically a check mark reward system.  The markers that come with it are dry erase, but the coating on the back is wonky.  Use stickers instead OR windex or 409 to clean the back.
• It’s $50.  Which kind of sucks.  Sorry. 

That being said, if your mornings and evenings are a constant source of stress, I highly recommend On Task On Time for Kids.

You can order it here through their web site for $49.95.

You can also buy On-Task On-Time For Kids on Amazon, for the same price.  (In case you’re an Amazon gift card junky like I am.)

Posted in Things For The Home Tagged: amazon, chores, homework, kids time, parents, product, routines, time management, time unit