SebastianCat Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Cross-posting from the Logic & Middle Age board..... 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...
Lily_Grace Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 I made two different forms for my son. The first was a Day Planning sheet. It had all his subjects and a place for him to fill in what time he planned to start, what time he planned to finish, actual time and blank spaces at the end for ongoing work that needed to be done on his own time. The second was a Project Planning sheet. Very similar to the first, except it was blank. Up at the top was a space for him to write the title of the project and due date. Then the rest of the page was filled with blank boxes like this: [___] [___________________________] [_______] [_______] [________] To be filled in as so: Step# What the step is date started date to finish by date finished We sat down every time he had a largish project and went over each step and what needed to be done, then every day I went over his daily sheet and reminded him of X project or whatnot if he forgot to put it on there. Eta: I also checked on the big projects on each of the mini due dates he set for himself. It helped keep him accountable and learn not to try to do it all at the last minute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 The book Smart but Scattered has great ideas for this. It helps you to see how to start with just a little organization and work your way up as the child gets older/more mature/more organized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwi mum Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 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?" The next step for us was to move to giving a list of assignments for the week. Freedom was given to choose when to do the assignments but the weekend didn't start until the list was finished. DS enjoyed trying out different ways of working - a bit of each subject each day, big blocks of time on one subject, work spread over six days, all crammed into four days. It has been a great learning experience for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tearose Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 As they get older, I would also recommend having more than one "big" (whatever that may mean for your student) assignment due at the same time. Once they're in college, they're going to find that Professor A couldn't care less that her big paper is due the same day as Professor B's big exam. It's the student's job to plan for that in advance. That's my advice as someone who's taught at the college level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SebastianCat Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 Thank you all for the ideas. Going to look at those resources now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyco Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens can be a great part of a "study skills" elective, along with online videos about how to use a planner and how to "back into" a schedule/lay out the tasks from a syllabus, take and review notes, study cards, note cards for research, etc. This sounds like a great resource! We are going to check it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens can be a great part of a "study skills" elective, along with online videos about how to use a planner and how to "back into" a schedule/lay out the tasks from a syllabus, take and review notes, study cards, note cards for research, etc. Any particular videos? Links? Didn't realize videos like this could be found online! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Most of the time the words, "if you don't get your work done today, you will miss your next dance class," generally serves to keep dd focused. I've actually followed through with it a time or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens can be a great part of a "study skills" elective, along with online videos about how to use a planner and how to "back into" a schedule/lay out the tasks from a syllabus, take and review notes, study cards, note cards for research, etc. Thank you for mentioning this. I've put both the book and the accompanying workbook in my amazon cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Most of the time the words, "if you don't get your work done today, you will miss your next dance class," generally serves to keep dd focused. I've actually followed through with it a time or two. That's pretty much the only thing that makes it through Rebecca's head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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