Sand Timer or Digital Timer?

[Tigerlion]

I want a timer for my DS, aged 4 so he can see how much time he has left.

The large sand timers look very good but don't seem to come any cheaper than £12.95. Does anyone know if I can obtain one cheaper somewhere?

Also, does anyone have any experience of using the digital timers that look like an hourglass and have black dots falling down? They are quite clever in that you can time anything between a few seconds and 99 minutes.

Have you seen timetimers? DS is 4yo and it is brilliant for him to see how much time he has left

We have three timers from
ocean direct

From them you can buy 3 or more for £5.99 each. we have a 5 minute one, 15 mins and 30 minutes.
The shorter amounts of time are yellow. The longer timers are red.

We have only had ours for a week but have found them very useful - 5 minutes to get dressed. 30 minutes on the internet

HTH

I forgot to say that they are very robust - to break them would be difficult I would imagine!
They are made in britain too

I prefer the Timetimer

I have some electronic sand timers with a picture of dots falling through as you describe. I got mine cheaply ( closing down sale) and they are OK and have survived well. Ds is used to them. However I do not think the picture communicates well to my child (who has LD and ASD). He is facinated by them though - even more so by real sand timers. The ping- ping is quiet and not alarming like some timers.
School (sn) use a time timer with a hand counting down which works better. We also use old fashioned kitchen dial timers (99p from Ikea but break after a few bounces) but the alarm is too loud to be near ds. HTH

The only problem with the Time Timer is that the numbers go from 55 down so could be confusing if you ever hope to teach telling the time. When I got mine, years ago, they didn't make them with an alarm noise but I think they do now.
We use a digital kitchen timer and I have one with a piece of velcro on top so I can put a PEC there to convey having to wait for whatever it is.
I suspect you could use a combination quite easilly.

We have the 5 min sand timer and it was worth the money, dd1 uses it a lot.

we have a sand timer but my ds gets very obsessed with watching it and doesnt actually spend those few minutes doing what he should be doing and just constantly sits turning it over so if your ds is similar that might be worth bearing in mind!

I suppose that is an advantage of the electronic diminishing dot timer - ds has never fiddled with it or got obsessed. It is pretty hard to fool (I know how to reset it but ds does not!).

Try sensorytoysshop on eBay - about £8.50 plus postage. They have other timers too digital and sand timers.

DS found sand timers too distracting. Also he used to try to cheat by turning them over before the end. A simple kitchen timer with an alarm (out of reach) worked the best to get him to move from one activity to another. He isn't hypersensitive to sound, though, so that may be an issue. He gets angry at transitions but it was better when he got angry with the timer rather than us. The timetimer looks good if you need them to see the time getting less, visually. My DS would get too upset that his time was going too quickly if it was for limiting PC time, etc.

DS2 has sand timers in school, and he does quite well with them. I've considered getting a couple to use at home for various things as well, but haven't reached a decision yet. He can't use timers with buttons or electronic as he is obsessed with electronic gadgets with buttons and would spend the whole time fiddling with it, however, the sand timers he does fine with them. Plus anything with an alarm would send him over the edge!!