Teaching Children Time Mangement

Did your parents teach your as a child about managing your time. Pretty sure mine didn't- I was told what to do and when to do it pretty much my whole live at home life.
When I moved out on my own I learned that procrastination was my best friend. It wasn't until I had my first child that I really had to learn how to get done what needed to be done and NOW.

So how do we teach our kids to be effective time managers so we can send them out into the world feeling organized instead of flying by the seat of their pants?

They need to learn 3 things:
*how to do "something"
* how long "something" takes to get done
*how to count backwards to give ourselves enough time to accomplish this "thing"

First figure out what you want your child to do  (please include your child in this) and then break those steps down
Using getting ready in the morning as an example
*get up( some of us like to lay there for a bit and think about getting up) 5 min
*make and eat breakfast 12 min
*brush teeth 3 min
*brush hair 2 min
*wash face 1 min
*get dressed 10 min
*pack lunch  7 min (or did it get done night before?)
*pack knapsack for school 3 min
*getting outside stuff on for getting to school 5 min ( dependent on weather and shiny objects that distract children from task )
*get to school 15 min

 Phew, there really is a lot of steps to " getting ready in the morning"

Now time how long it takes your child to do these things. Don't let them race and don't nag them to hurry . You want an accurate time count and then add another 5-10 minute for those little emergencies( I have no socks and need to scramble through the dryer to find some- not that I know anything about this,ahem)

okay add up those times -total: 63 + 5 min=68 minutes or about 1 hour and 10 minutes ( ok I was amazed by how long this really took and I can tell you that in our house I actually make the lunches). You now know how long it takes.

Now help your kids figure out what time they need to get up in order for all that to be done and at school on time. If I need to be at school at 8:30 I need to be awake at 7:20. You have now accomplished counting backwards to give yourself enough time.


We can't assume that our kids know how to do all these things on their own.

  -do they know bagels for lunch are in the freezer?
  - can they get up on their own? do they have a clock in their room?
  -can they pour a big jug of milk or does it need to be in a smaller container
  -can they do up all the buttons on their shirt? or should we stick with tops that pull over their heads when we can

 lesson complete I can do it myself ( said with a sense of accomplishment by your child)