6 Brilliant Tips & Strategies for Teaching Time Management to Kids
“Hurry up! What’s taking you so long”? “Why haven’t you done your maths homework? You had a whole day?” Do you often hear yourself asking similar questions to your kids? Maybe it's time to teach your kids how to manage their time! It is one of the most required life skills for children, and they can learn it with your help.
But before going into details of how to teach time management skills to kids, let’s understand how important it is! Academic success is not the only goal for the 21st Century kids. They want to participate in extracurricular activities, sports, quizzes, etc. All this is great for overall development! But all this isn’t possible for kids without time management.
6 Brilliant Tips on How to Teach Time Management to Kids
You are going to read 6 tips that will significantly help you and your family members in teaching time management to kids.
1. Planning, Prioritising, Organising, Setting Goals & Duties
Every minute spent in planning and organising saves an hour of working. Explain to your kids how much time they can earn by planning their day in advance and organising their stuff. So no more screaming, “Mom, where are my socks?" no last-minute search for school uniform or footwear! They must learn to put everything in its designated place.
Kids should also understand their goals and duties are above everything else. Self-discipline acquired in childhood will help them achieve professional and personal goals as an adult.
2. Time Flies! Therefore it’s so Valuable!
Remember the story of the race between the rabbit and the tortoise? The rabbit thought he’d got all day to complete the race. The tortoise was consistent and didn’t waste a single second, so he won. Your kids need time management skills because if they think they have enough time, they will run out of it soon.
Step in as a guide and teach your kids the value of time. Explain to them how they can avoid missing deadlines by managing their time well and not taking it lightly.
3. Checklists Are the Stress Busters
If you are the one who follows a checklist, you know how satisfying it is to tick-mark a pending task as done. You can inculcate the habit of following a checklist in your kids by turning their daily routine into a checklist. In that way, you wouldn’t need to remind them to shower and prepare the school bag and uniform for the next day.
Once they know the satisfaction of completing tasks on time, there is no going back. A checklist can create such an unbreakable bond between kids and time management.
4. One Day, Week, & Month at a Time
Eat an elephant one bite at a time! Break the schedule of your kids into pieces. Make it daily or weekly. When you see kids are comfortable with daily and weekly schedules, you can chalk out a monthly plan for them. Take a note of their alternate day or weekend vocational classes in that routine.
One of the underrated time management tips for kids is to schedule their free time. By doing this, you can add some fun to the task of time management for kids. At the same time, you can positively restrict their leisure time.
5. To Forget is Human, so Alarms & Alerts are Needed
If adults can forget a scheduled task, kids can as well. But if your kids keep forgetting stuff, they will believe themselves to be good planners but bad executers. That’s why the time management strategy of alarms and alerts is best suited for kids. Make full use of technology! Introduce the concept of setting alarms and alerts for your kids.
Alarms and alerts work as a support system, and kids feel relieved from the burden of remembering everything. It makes time management an attainable goal for kids.
6. Rewards & Perks do Wonders as Motivators
Do you want your kids to take an interest in learning time management? Announce small perks on day-to-day achievement and big rewards on significant achievements. Be creative in rewarding your kids. Don’t count solely on extra screen time. Take them out for a dinner or movie, making it a good bonding time for your family.
Rewarding your kids is not only a great way of teaching time management. It also teaches that you need to earn enjoyment and leisure time by first completing your work and duties.
Summing up!
William Penn rightly said, “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” Teaching time management would be one of your biggest contributions to the life of your kids, as they will need it the most when they grow up. Hopefully, you will execute these 6 proven time management tips for kids to the T and witness your kids become brilliant organisers.
At PlanetSpark, we have a variety of content and curriculum for teaching 21st-century life skills to kids through our website and virtual classrooms. Click here to know more or directly book your free trial from here!
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