Swirly Studios

The timer uses encouragement and the power of music to motivate children as they move through daily transitions. So, instead of nagging, grown-ups are free to champion their kids!

Developed by parents and educational technologists. Perfect for preschoolers, early elementary schoolers, and their grown-ups.

• Musical timers include:
• Ready to leave the house in 5 minutes
• Getting dressed
• Getting ready for a meal
• Cleaning one's room
• Making one's bed
• Brushing teeth (for a full two minutes)
• Taking turns

• Why a Musical Timer?

  "We need to leave the house in five minutes."
  "Brush your teeth for a full two minutes."
  …these statements meant little to our preschoolers, so they would blithely ignore them.

  "Take turns with your sister."
  "For the umpteenth time, please pick up your Legos."
  "Get ready for bed."
  …we were getting sick of nagging. So we decided it would be more fun to make it a game, using music and encouragement. And the Lickety Split Musical Timer came into being.

  Lickety Split turns the abstract concept of time into a concrete audio/visual for a child. it uses the power of music to motivate, helping children move through transitions throughout their day. Grown-ups champion kids (no more nagging!) and everyone celebrates his or his success.

• Using Lickety Split

  There are two types of timers:
  In Beat The Timer, the goal is to finish (e.g. brushing teeth) until the timer counts down

  A parent or teacher's enthusiasm for using Lickety Split can be contagious for children. For example, "let's get this room clean. I think we can beat the duck."

  The music in Lickety Split has been carefully selected to provide audio cues, helping to motivate children.

  Lickety Split is designed to let your younger children try again if they don't succeed the first time. The goal is their ultimate success.

  Parents can reward a child's success at a Lickety Split task if they choose, but may find the child's internal satisfaction of knowing s/he did it to be their motivation.

  There are custom timers without set tasks. Some example ways you could use custom timers are:
  
  (Beat The Timer) "Can you hop into bed before the two minute runs out?"
  (Countdown) "I need 4 minutes to pay these bills, then we can play together." (How enpowering for a child to sit and watch this timer!)

  Some days it's nice to dawdle, but on days when you need to get going, lickety split, we hope this app will be helpful to you, as it has been for our family.

  Send us feedback on how you use Lickety Split.
  support@swirlystudios.com