Parents: Making New Year’s resolutions is definitely not something new. However, it can be difficult to stay motivated or stop a bad habit for 365 days. Nevertheless, the start of a new year is a good time for children to make a resolution that could improve their home or school life in some way.
Here are a few tips for helping children make resolutions they might actually accomplish:
- Have the entire family make a resolution together. Or, have children take part in a group resolution with their classmates to achieve a certain learning goal. When a group makes a resolution together, it is more likely to be accomplished.
- Instead of making a resolution for an entire year, establish a shorter amount of time, keeping in mind their age range when setting timeframes.
- Tack a penalty or reward clause to the resolution. It will incentivise children to stay focused on the resolution.
- Post the resolution in a prominent spot so children are aware of what they need to do.
- Consider having them make a resolution that is an enjoyable one so they will have fun sticking to it. This is very important for younger children.
- Do not have them make vague resolutions such as exercising more. Instead, set a more specific goal like riding a bike for 15 minutes every Saturday.
- If a resolution is not accomplished some days or weeks, build in allowances to excuse the failure. For example, using get-out-of-jail cards to acknowledge there may be times a resolution is broken or disregarded.
- Encourage them to avoid making resolutions that have not been previously successful.
Ways to Help Your Children Manage Their Time
Parents: Believe it or not, children do not have the ability to manage their time effectively until around middle school. They’re not able to organize the sequence of things that need to get done. Until they can, you have to be their time-management facilitator. What you teach them will change as they grow from toddlers to middle schoolers, mastering additional skills along the way.
Preschoolers: This is the time children begin to learn how time is sequenced. It starts as they observe how the evening is planned. For some homes, the routine will be bath, story time, then bed. During this season, they will learn words such as: before, after, next, first, then, and last because you will typically use them to describe each step in your nightly routine. For the morning routine that involves getting dressed, eating, or brushing their teeth, you may want to make a picture chart for each step and have them cross off items as they are completed.
Early Elementary School: At this point, children should be acquiring two skills.
- Knowing how much time they have to complete a task — bathing, chores, and even homework. Choose a task and set a time for it to be completed. Use a timer so children begin to learn about the actual passage of time.
- Understanding how to read time on clocks and watches. You can engage counting activities using a toy clock with moveable hands and practice various time settings. For example, set the clock at 12 o’clock, then have them point to the numbers on the clock dial and write them down, starting with one, and count by fives — 12:05, 12:10, 12:15, and so on.
Grades 3-5: By this age, an important practice with children is time estimation. You can create a game by having them tell you how long it takes to make a bed or something similar. After completing the task, they can see how accurate their estimate was.
This ties in with teaching them how to break long-term assignments into smaller manageable steps. These steps can be written in a planner and crossed off when completed. In fact, having children make lists of things they need to do can be very helpful in teaching time management skills.