SebastianCat Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 How do you teach your middle-school-aged child time management skills? My DS will be in 6th grade in the fall, and I feel the need to BEGIN shifting the responsibility of keeping up with assginments, extracurricular activities, etc., to him. But I have no idea how to do that, what tools will help him, or how to teach those skills. DS does very well when he's given a list of assignments for the day, but he's not a naturally organized person. So how do I transition from "giving him a list of assignments" to "giving him a syllabus and a due date?" (Obviously this is a long-term goal, and we won't get there overnight. I just need some tools to start moving in that direction. I know many of you have BTDT and have some wisdom to share.) Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SewLittleTime Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 I'm interested to hear what others say. This is one of my goals for ds for next year too. He also will be 6th grade. I'm debating on whether or not an online class might be a way to help with this. That way he has to be accountable to someone else besides me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 I'm confused. Is he managing his daily assignments well or are you having to nag him to complete his assigned work? If he is managing his daily assignments, I'm not sure what more you are expecting from a middle school student. Even high school students (and college students to a certain degree) are given daily or weekly assignments. For some subjects, making a weekly goal might be an option(like read chpts 1-8 by Friday.). But I wouldn't expect to hand a middle school student a stack of texts with just weekly goals without some sort of guidance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 You might want to purchase SWB's lecture "teaching students to work more independently" . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SebastianCat Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 I'm confused. Is he managing his daily assignments well or are you having to nag him to complete his assigned work? If he is managing his daily assignments, I'm not sure what more you are expecting from a middle school student. Even high school students (and college students to a certain degree) are given daily or weekly assignments. For some subjects, making a weekly goal might be an option(like read chpts 1-8 by Friday.). But I wouldn't expect to hand a middle school student a stack of texts with just weekly goals without some sort of guidance. He's actually doing pretty well managing daily assignments. He gets a printed assignment sheet for the week, with each day's assignments, and does well doing each task, checking them off, etc. I guess my question was more along the lines of how to transition from specific assignments for everything.......gradually over the next 5-6 years......to more of a college-like mindset where a student is handed a syllabus and a textbook and is expected to manage the workload himself. No, I don't expect a middle school student to be there yet. I want him to be able to plan how to tackle major projects, papers, exams, etc., while he's still under my guidance so he can learn those skills over time. I'm interested to hear what others say. This is one of my goals for ds for next year too. He also will be 6th grade. I'm debating on whether or not an online class might be a way to help with this. That way he has to be accountable to someone else besides me. I cross posted this question on the General Education board and there were some really good responses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 I guess my question was more along the lines of how to transition from specific assignments for everything.......gradually over the next 5-6 years......to more of a college-like mindset where a student is handed a syllabus and a textbook and is expected to manage the workload himself. No, I don't expect a middle school student to be there yet. I want him to be able to plan how to tackle major projects, papers, exams, etc., while he's still under my guidance so he can learn those skills over time. Handing students a syllabus and a textbk and expecting them to manage the workload themselves is not a typical college classroom experience. Students are usually given week by week breakdowns with due dates weekly for some assignments or longer-term deadlines bolded and reminders given. Some classes even give class by class breakdowns of what is expected for each class meeting. Fwiw, it is impossible to compare a 6th graders level of self-governance with an 18 yr olds. It sounds like you already have a good system that is working. It doesn't sound like you need to alter what you are doing any time soon. I would just sit back and see how he matures over the yrs bc it may be completely a non-issue, especially for a student that seems to as responsible as he already is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Atmika Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 A good place to begin teaching time management is task analysis. It provides some idea to develop a skill that many students do not develop personally, yet it is an essential element to develop effective time management too. You can have a lot of fun with this one.You can make them play some time management and decision making games. Being an elite game player, one should know how to manage time as most games are timed ones. Decision making comes the next in playing any kinda game.And also there are certain apps that we can use to teach some essential time management skills. I prefer using time recording software from Replicon, http://goo.gl/yGF1mm. Normally, some time management tools takes a little time to learn about the features and functionalities. But this application has user-friendly features where it is very easy to understand and operate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2scouts Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 I'm interested in this subject too, but you're already ahead of me. My son will be in 6th grade next year, but he doesn't do well even with a list of daily assignments. I often have to redirect his attention to his work and he sometimes gets really behind. I have seen improvement this year, so maybe maturity will make a difference. I'm hoping to get to a point where I can give him a daily assignment list and a weekly deadline and allow him to follow my schedule or do it in a different order as long as he has the work completed by the deadline and is prepared for discussion or review times with Mom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targhee Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 At-elbow direction and modeling. As an aside, my DD has ADD and time management us a big difficulty. she has a gard time even gaging 10 minutes vs 45 min. I help DD create a checklist of her weekly tasks and schedule them in a planner. Every Sun night we plan out the week. We have been doing this since Sept. I tried leaving her elbow too soon and she fell flat, so I continue to support her step by step in the process. It is getting better, slowly. I also have her set timers to remind when to switch tasks. The checklist and weekly schedule are crucial for her to work independently effectively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dee67p Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 I use timers everywhere so there is lots of breaks for Lego time. They MUST OWN THEIR SCHEDULES. They will be tax-payers someday (I hope), and they must be in charge of their lives, b/c I'm downsizing soon after they graduate. We also did a big "no-no" and scheduled all of one subject to be done in one day. IE. Spelling Workout lesson 16 pretest, practice pages and final spelling test in one day. With my kids, this takes all day to complete along with one of their maths, Bible study and household duties. Another day is set aside to accomplish all the science tasks, Bible study and a math along with household stuff. Their productivity is higher, and they still remember how to spell the words along with the science vocabulary for the week when we do the review in successive weeks. We tweak and tweak and tweak our schedules, and finally they work (7th year of homeschooling). I take lots of hints from Donnayoung.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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