Hellobee Boards

Timers, my phone shows timers as a circle so she can watch it tick down and change color (it gets red at 5 sec). Saying 2 min or 5 min or whatever doesn't work, but the visual representation seems to do the trick. We also ask E for how long she wants it set for which gives her some control. She is a big fan of asking google to set the timer too, I mean my brain hurt the first time she said hey google set a timer but it works well for us.

We used Daniel tiger a lot - “it’s almost time to stop so choose one more thing to do” followed by “that was fun but now we’re done.”

And I agree that if you are going to use a timer having it be visual is helpful.

Early 3 was a hard time in terms of tantrums for DS. I second the use of either a visual timer or a quick countdown of doing something one more time. But anything longer than 2 minutes is bound to be meaningless at that age. Also, what about having there be something positive happen during or right after the transitions that you think will be harder. I'm thinking about something like, 2 more times down the slide and then we will sing your favorite song on the way to the car. Or, 5 more splashes and then we'll have a tickle fight when you get into pjs. Kind of like, first (activity ends), then (something else positive)

Transitions at that age are so tough - and it’s got to be even harder as the youngest one! Timers always stressed my kids out, but putting on a song and saying, “we’ll go have lunch when this song is over!” worked sometimes as a “hidden” timer.

My oldest was also really stressed about missing out on the fun she was having when it was time to move on - I’d catch a quick video of her playing/drawing/at the park/etc on my phone and then let her watch it after we’d moved on to our next step. It seemed to help her still hold on to the fun though the video, but be able to leave it in the moment.

@bhbee: One thing that helped DS1 at that age: I would say “in 2 minutes (or after one more thing), I am going to say “time to go” and you will say “okay!” For some reason, giving him the appropriate response helped him not have a meltdown. It took a bit of practice, but definitely paid off.