I received an echo dot for Christmas from my sister-in-law and thought to myself, "What the heck am I going to use this for?" I'm not tech savvy nor is our house a smart house. I set it up and began looking up what to do with it. Fast forward to now and we use it EVERY day.
For some reason Cole listens to Alexa MUCH BETTER than he listens to us. Seriously. Alexa's timers go off, he stops what he's doing, cleans up and off to the next thing. Wow. Anyway, I'll take whatever help I can get when it comes to transitioning and listening. Here are some ideas of ways we use Alexa all the time. I hope it helps you if you are struggling to find a way to use it.
1. Timeout - Yup. We have a lot of those. Or a "cool down" where he goes to his room and come come down after the timer goes off.
"Alexa, set a timeout timer for 3 minutes" is much easier than remembering how long it has been or what you walked in the kitchen for (to set the timer.)
2. Cooking - "Is my dinner ready yet?" or you are running around cleaning up, entertaining, cooking and I almost always forget to set the microwave timer.
"Alexa, set a pasta timer for 5 minutes." Because it is so user friendly, Cole can even set a timer if I ask him to. We made pudding and it had to set for 5 minutes so I asked him to set a timer and he did. That way he could play until it was ready.
3. Naptime - the dreaded naptime. We have EVERY excuse and whining in the book when it comes down to time to take a nap. I usually tell Cole he has 15 minutes and then I set an Alexa timer. He is usually much better. Of course, there is still the nooooooooo on occasion. When I was working from home and watching Cole during the pandemic, this was a lifesaver. I only had a certain amount of time in between calls to get him to take a nap so it was just as helpful for me.
"Alexa, set a naptime timer for 15 minutes."
4. Bedtime - same as above. Use it to set a two minute timer for toothbrushing, handwashing, etc.
"Alexa, set a bedtime timer for 30 minutes."
5. Bath time - Once we get in the bath tub, we have a hard time getting out and by we, I mean Cole. I can yell to Alexa from the bathroom,
"Alexa, set a bath tub timer for 5 minutes."
What do you use your Alexa timers for?
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