Time management skills

[Mommy22alyns]

How do you teach this at home?  Around what age(s) can you start expecting a little more from your kids?  This is not necessarily just for schoolwork, but also for chores.  I'm losing my mind over how long it takes Rebecca to do half of one simple chore.   :cursing:

[Mommy22alyns]

Nobody?  Anybody?

[Hunter's Moon]

Not a parent ;) 

 

When I was younger, I had no sense of time whatsoever. I still struggle with this a bit today, but not as badly. 

 

What my older cousin did when babysitting us was to put a song on (N*SYNC :P) and tell us if we didn't do such-and-such by the end of the song, we wouldn't get to do so-and-so later. It was a good way to learn natural consequences. If I am going to do something slowly, I need to understand it will cut into other activities. So I either need to pick up the pace, or plan accordingly. Without the set time (song) and natural consequence directly connected, I would not have understood. 

[GoVanGogh]

Just a huge conversation about this with my child's therapist.

1.) Get a plain, cheap clock. Take dry erase marker and mark off a block of time - say, 30 minutes for math. You should be able to still see the clock's hands move through the portion that has been marked off. Kids have a visual of time passing. I did this for a week - with every single subject - with child and it helped so much. (But not enough...)

2.) Block off a week or so from your schedule and work directly with the child on time management. Make a graph or chart of how long it takes child to do each task. Give child assignments where they have to figure out how to manage two tasks at once. (Say - baking and frosting a cake while doing school work, where they have to plot out how long it will take to mix cake, bake cake, cake to cool, etc.) Do this in a relaxed period, so as not to stress mother and child.

3.) Criticl Thinking Co. has some new books on the passage of time. We are currently working through the first one. I don't know that I would give it glowing reviews at this point, but might be something to look at.

4.) You might also research "executive function," especially on the special needs board. EF often comes up over there.

5.) I have no idea how old our child is, but that portion of the brain isn't actually fully developed until adulthood! Some people do seem to be born with great time management and EF, while others struggle forever with it. Know what is developmentally appropriate for your child's age and adjust expectations.

[MrsH]

We just had a huge conversation w/ dd11's therapist about this as well.  It's definitely a HUGE topic for her right now, and I think part of it is that she's showing lots of desire for more independence, and wants to get her work done, but is lacking the skill of time management.  We're working with her on blocking her time.  She decided that working for 20 minutes feels reasonable and manageable.  We set the time timer (a great visual), and if she can stay in her seat and work for that time period then she earns a coin in her jar plus a 5 minute break.  After a set number of coins she earns a longer break or special activity, and that basically continues throughout the day.  When I'm with her it's working out great.  When I send her to her room for the 20 minutes it's less stellar but improving, and if she's with another adult then it's not yet working at all. 

 

I'm trying to model a LOT as well.  Some out loud thinking such as: "oh, I got so distracted unloading the dishwasher and now it's not done.  I wish I could just sit down and ... for a little bit, but now I still need to do that dishwasher."  Or the converse: "I'm going to see if I can get this laundry folded in 10 minutes so that I'll still have time to read my book!"

 

I don't foresee keeping this up indefinitely, the goal really is to talk about time management and help her better understand how time works.

[Alte Veste Academy]

With some (most?) kids, I don't think you can expect to see these skills until they have been explicitly taught and scaffolded for quite some time. Reading The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel Siegel was a revelation for me. It has the most wonderful explanations about kids' brain development! We are seriously working on scaffolding time management and work/study skills here. I started working through the ideas in Smart But Scattered with DS10, then with DD9, and I am now starting to apply what works to my youngest when appropriate. Anyway, for me it has been helpful to consider this a life skill that deserves its own time as a subject in our homeschool.

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Whole-Brain-Child-Revolutionary-Strategies/dp/0553386697

 

http://www.amazon.com/Smart-but-Scattered-Revolutionary-Executive/dp/1593854455/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383318243&sr=1-1&keywords=smart+but+scattered

[coffeegal]

We start teaching time management skills young in my family. I learned the techniques from my mother and am teaching them to my own children.

1st - chores - You have to begin with very simple and explicit commands with 2 year olds. Pick up this Duplo; put it in the bucket. Slowly you move on until a 4 yo can handle simple commands. Pick up the Duplos. Do not tell a young child to pick up a room. They'll look at the mess, become overwhelmed, and will not do anything. Even 6 year olds can be easily overwhelmed. Gradually build until your child knows first pick up the Duplos, then pick up the cars, then put the buckets away. Often posting a list of what needs to be done helps in cleaning an area when you're dealing with older children. When in doubt, the child can refer to the list. It takes time and supervision before children can do it reliably, even with a list.

 

2nd - school - Again, start small with simple and explicit instructions. Do math problem 1. You did it! Do math problem 2. Once the child starts to move on from problem to problem reliably, you can move to assigning worksheets. Do this page of math. You did it! Do the next page of math. After a while, you can expand to instructions of complete your math. You did it! Now do your handwriting. 

 

Just as a heads up, this process takes years but it does work. :001_smile:

[Deee]

I think I need a remedial curriculum for my husband.......

D

[Woodland Mist Academy]

... I started working through the ideas in Smart But Scattered with DS10, then with DD9, and I am now starting to apply what works to my youngest when appropriate....

 

I'm thinking of ordering Smart, but Scattered Teens. Did you buy the book or Kindle version of Smart, but Scattered? I'm learning toward the Kindle version. Were there charts to copy and use or anything else in the version you have that would sway you against the Kindle version?

 

Thanks.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Oops. I just saw this on Amazon:

 

Helpful worksheets and forms can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.

 

So I'm guessing the Kindle would be fine.

[Guest Atmika]

How do you teach this at home?  Around what age(s) can you start expecting a little more from your kids?  This is not necessarily just for schoolwork, but also for chores.  I'm losing my mind over how long it takes Rebecca to do half of one simple chore.   :cursing:

 

Hi,

Time management is something we all struggle with especially teaching it to our kids. Our children are growing up surrounded by latest technologies. There are certain apps that we can use to teach some essential time management skills for our kids.

 

I feel like I spend so much time on getting my kids to complete their homework and ready to leave when we have someplace to be. So, in an effort to prevent this and to teach time management skills, I bought a time recording software from Replicon, it has worked wonders in our home.

 

If you would like to know abou this application, visit ( Replicon.com) website.

 

Thanks!

 

[Heidi]

Age 5 is when I start really training my kids to do chores. This includes picking up 2-3 rooms of the house daily, sweeping, vacuuming, and wiping bathrooms and windows 3-4 days of the week, and laundry when needed. I help my dd5 with her chore list, but slowly expect her to do more of it on her own. Ds3 is required to only pick up his blocks every day, and sometimes I will encourage dd2 to help him. Ds3 likes to vacuum (and surprisingly does a pretty good job), so his older sisters usually have him do their vacuuming for them. Dd8 needs motivation to get her chores done quickly, so I set a timer for her and depending on the circumstance offer either a consequence or reward for finishing on time.

School work, on the other hand, I haven't figured out yet. Struggling with that taking all day long, even though I have cut back significantly on what I require. : /

[LindaOz]

We have a day schedule in our house that gives a flow to our day, so within that my kids need to learn to do things in the time that is allotted to them whether it be schoolwork or chores or whatever.  A lot depends on personality.  I have some who are strongly motivated to get things done on time, but I also have some who just run on a different time schedule to the rest of the world and really need lots of teaching and practice.  One of my kids can take alllllll daaaaayyyyy to do a simple task if she has all day to do it in, but could do it in a jiffy if she only has a short time. 

 

In the past few weeks, I've been working on this with my 11yo dawdler who can literally take a quick chore and turn it into a marathon.  She had to do a few chores in the kitchen before morning school and it just wasn't getting done on time which would leave her to either start schoolwork late or leave the job unfinished for someone else to complete.  I don't like either of these options.  So I talked to her about how this specific time was for this particular job and I'd give her a time when it was to be finished by.  If it wasn't done, then she would start school at school time and have to go and finish her chores at morning break time so it was her own time that she was missing out on (meanwhile I turned a blind eye to the messy kitchen...)  She had to do this 2 or 3 times but she is improving so the message must be getting through.  I just didn't want her to form a habit of taking as long as she wants just because she is home all day, but to learn to finish a task in a timely way.  This, I believe, is a life skill. 

 

Anyway, a day schedule helps us here.  And setting a timer can also be a great motivator.

 

HTH