Claiborne Pace Day was on the hunt for a timer, but not just any timer. She wanted a quiet one that notified you when time was up visually and peacefully, with no bells and whistles, literally, to help wean her daughter off her pacifier. But she couldn’t find one.

Five and a half years later, she’s invented one you can now buy on Amazon, and luckily it’s still a useful tool for parenting for her daughter Alice, who is now in second grade and pictured on the product’s box (and in the photo on this page). “Now I get my daughter to use it for quiet time in her room, and sometimes she gets involved in something and is engaged enough that she doesn’t notice the light has turned off. A buzzer, on the other hand, would make her stop,” Claiborne says.

Claiborne, a 1996 MBHS graduate who taught at Cherokee Bend for six years before moving to Minnesota, also uses it a lot in the summer for increments of tasks for Alice like working on flash cards as well as in her own classroom to signify the end of a task like reading without a blaring noise. “A lot of my special education teacher friends love it because they are in smaller spaces and can’t have buzzers go off,” Claiborne says. “They also appreciate that it’s a peaceful approach to time management because a lot of their students have anxiety regarding timed activities.”

Different colors of lights on the rechargeable (no batteries required!) Soft Glow Silent Timer signify different time amounts on the orb-shaped devise that is manufactured by the company run by the family of a friend of Claiborne’s from her time at Auburn University. The device also has a night light function that turns off with a timer since research shows we sleep better in a dark environment, and its red setting has a calming effect in the dark according to what science says.

The timer has gotten a review from a woman who uses it when visitors come to see her mother who is ill to remind them that 10 minutes has passed and that is about all that her mom is up for. Another reviewer who is deaf uses it to keep herself from losing track of time, others use it for their children with ADD, and still another says she uses it to time how long she pets her cat (Claiborne definitely didn’t think of that use).

“Now that it’s been out almost a year now I am feeling excited about it because people are finding it’s useful in the ways I thought it would be and they are also finding new uses for it, which I think is exciting,” Claiborne says.

The Soft Glow Silent Timer is available on Amazon.com.