Telling time is part of our school curriculum in second grade. Our kids learn about analog clocks, what time it is and how to tell time. They see digital clocks everywhere in our homes. Telling time is just the first part of time management. More than just telling time, time management is about prioritizing what to do when, how long a task takes, and breaking a task into smaller steps for completion. Teaching your kids time management skills takes time, practice and patience.
Time management basics
Time management is about prioritizing, duration, and chunking.
- We prioritize what tasks need to be done when we have a date or deadline. How do we know what’s important when there is neither of these? Tasks become a priority when we have a clear value for ourselves personally. We have parents shaped those values with our family.
- We know the duration of a task, or how long it takes, from experiences we have. Each of us can do the same task but have it take different amounts of time depending on many parts. Allowing ourselves extra time to complete a task makes it easier.
- Chunking is breaking a task into manageable chunks. We can’t always complete a task in a certain amount of time, but if we break it into smaller bits we can be assured of completion.
Time Management for elementary age kids
As parents are a “talking the talk and walking the walk” of our priorities for our kids. In elementary school most kids have a variety of academics and extracurricular activities. We have set up extracurricular activities for our kids to have varied experiences. Our priorities for their experiences shape their activities.
- If your family values wellness, choose one activity that includes exercise such as baseball, dance or gymnastics for each child.
- If your family values spirituality, attend weekly at church or synagogue or bible study.
- If your family values academic success, establish a daily homework time starting at an early hour.
Keep mindful of how many priorities your family has. Weigh the value of over committing to an abundance of extracurricular activities. All activities are good, but which is best for your family. Your kids can be over scheduled in elementary school and feel stressed by being rushed between activities.
Help your kids learn how long a task takes by establishing time for them to work on a chore or a project. We often are unaware or unsure of how long it takes to unload the dishwasher, look up information on a computer or complete a worksheet as homework.
- Keep a time log and see how long an activity takes.
- Set a timer and see how long an activity takes.
- Use a time timer and see how long an activity takes.
Breaking tasks into management pieces takes practice too. It could be a school related project or organizing your space, but every project can be broken down into smaller units to complete.
- Use the pomodoro method with a timer, segmenting your work into 20 minutes time slots.
- Use a mind map and map out a plan for each step of a project.
- Make a list of the steps in a project.
Each of these tools helps you model time management and engage with them in the process. We always need improved processes ourselves. Teaching our kids will make us use these tools more effectively too.
Check out more on time management here.