Summer Edition 2017

REVIEW
Gift tokens
With screen time becoming a daily
battleground, Susannah Warren introduces
TimeTokens to help manage her children’s
digital diet – with life-changing results
It’s a beautiful day outside. The
house is deliciously quiet. But
where are the children? Daisy,
seven, is watching mindless TV
in the playroom, Wilfred, five, is
in his bedroom, nose to tablet,
immersed in the virtual world of
Minecraft. I’m not sure exactly
how long they’ve been gorging
on these tech treats (parenting
fail), but it’s almost certainly
too long. It’s time for battle and
the inevitable screen withdrawal
process – aka, a total meltdown –
to commence. Sound familiar?
Well, if getting your kids to
turn off a device feels more like
making a drug addict go cold
turkey, I have glad tidings for
you in the form of TimeTokens.
Designed by a mother with
her seven-year-old son, it’s a
simple, inexpensive system that
empowers children aged between
five and 10 to manage their own
screen time via a pack of fun,
tangible tokens and a magnetic
LCD timer. Worn down by my
daily digital battles, I decided to
give it a whirl.
As soon as the handy orange
wallets dropped through the
letterbox, they couldn’t wait to
get started. After agreeing an
allowance of five hours per week
as a realistic starting point, they
signed their personal Promise
Contracts and stuck them to
the fridge. Then, whenever
they wanted some screen time,
they handed over the relevant
TimeTokens - they come in
handy denominations of five, 10,
15, 30 and 60 minutes – and set
the timer accordingly.
Initially, I was rather skeptical
of their ability to self-regulate,
but I couldn’t have been more
wrong. Although they used
up their five hours’ worth too
quickly in week one, they
went without until their wallet
was replenished for the new
week and became much more
discerning about how they
“spent” their TimeTokens
thereafter. A good lesson of
delayed gratification and time
management learned!
The timer turned out to be the
real revelation, though. As soon
as it started to beep, the kids
immediately turned off whatever
device they were on. Without
argument. Hurrah! It turns out
they loved being in charge and
setting their own boundaries. We
are now nearly a month into this
healthier and more harmonious
digital life and the novelty has
yet to wear off. Now it’s just the
grown-ups who need to sort
their tech addictions out…
£14.95 per pack.
www.timetokens.com
SUMMER 17 ★ schoolnotices.co.uk 31