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When the Timer Beeps

Stopping is a skill

Play this lessonNarrated out loud. No account, works offline.

Also available in Spanish. The app stops after two lessons a day and suggests something to do away from the screen.

What it teaches

These are the lines the lesson comes back to, and the ones a child actually remembers afterwards.

It's hard by design. Not because you're weak.

Hard is not the same as unfair.

How it starts

Here is something almost nobody tells kids. Stopping a screen is hard for grown-ups too. Your mom has stood in the kitchen saying one more minute to her own phone. It is not because you are bad, and it is not because you have no self control. It is because of how these things are built.

How the lesson goes

Why it's hard on purpose

  1. The next thing starts by itself
  2. It never gets to an ending
  3. Something new appears every time

The beep feeling

  1. Hot in your face
  2. Your hands want it back
  3. A very good reason appears

The beep plan

  1. Say 'okay' out loud
  2. Hand it to a grown-up
  3. Walk into a different room

Set the next thing up first

  1. Get it out before you start
  2. Leave it where you'll walk into it
  3. Then start the timer

The question at the end

The timer beeps in the middle of your show. What do you do?

For the grown-up

Every lesson ends by handing the child something to do off the screen, and telling you what was taught so you can use the same words.

Try this today: Practice right now, while it's easy: say 'okay' out loud, hand this device to a grown-up, and walk into a different room.

Then: Come back in ten minutes and tell them it was hard and you did it anyway.

More in Screens

The whole library is free

Twenty-four narrated lessons for ages 4 to 9, in English and Spanish. No account, no sign-up, no ads, and nothing your child does in the app ever leaves the device — you can check that yourself with the network tab open. Open the lessons.