Staying organised: the calm before the storm, or is it the calm that weathers all storms? Even the most spontaneous parents will agree that our lives require some sort of organisation and time management- and to keep afloat we have to teach our kids to manage their time too.<\/p>\n
We live in a world of instantaneous communication \u2013 and instant demands. The report you were told to write today was due yesterday, your boss has scheduled seven meetings for the same hour, and you still have to find time to pick up the kids from school, help them with their homework and make a dinner everyone will eat and which is still nutritious.<\/p>\n
Pause for a moment. Have I made your heart race? Yes, your life is, probably, fuller than that of your kids, but believe me when I say that kids are just as panic-stricken about their lives.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s school, sport, homework, test preparation, the school play, extra-curricular activities and nagging mums, shouting dads and difficult teachers to placate. And, on top of all this, there are friends to fight and make up with, parties to go to and the right outfit to find.<\/p>\n
In order to get around to everything, without allowing anything to fall by the wayside, children, and definitely teenagers, have to learn organisation.\u00a0 Learning to manage their time is a very necessary skill \u2013 one that they will need throughout their lives. So why not prepare your child to be organised now?<\/p>\n
I firmly believe that we learn by doing. Buy them a homework diary. Insist they write in it. Check that they\u2019re doing so, if necessary. Ultimately, however, if you\u2019re running your child\u2019s life for them, what reason do they have to learn how to do it themselves?<\/p>\n
If working on a large project, they can break it up into manageable bits, and complete each task they\u2019ve assigned themselves. Don\u2019t make them use it purely for homework \u2013 let them write down what events they have when, so that they can see that leaving studying until the Thursday before a Friday Maths test is probably not a good idea if they have rehearsals for Hamlet until late on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
If they are inclined to forget about what\u2019s over the page, \u00a0a desk calendar can be a good idea \u2013 with a monthly planner they can see what\u2019s due when at a glance. Remind them to fill in everything<\/strong>. This includes Suzi\u2019s party on Saturday.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t fall for the \u201cplanning fallacy\u201d. People have a tendency to underestimate the amount of time it will take them to complete a task.\u00a0 Encourage them to allow for triple the time they think a project will take them. If they finish with time to spare, that extra time should be theirs \u2013 this way, good planning is rewarded.<\/p>\n Starting early on any given task will allow for Eskom to cut the power \u2013 or give them the time to counsel their best friend through a crisis.<\/p>\n Lastly, warn them not to spend so much time organising their lives that no time is left in which to do the actual work. What good is a beautiful schedule that can\u2019t be followed due to time constraints?<\/p>\n As wonderful as it may seem to catch a movie, play playstation or party all weekend, this only makes the Monday more blue, and the week ahead more difficult. Here is a practical way of actually making the weekend meaningful, with enough recreational time as well as time to be productive.<\/p>\n Divide the weekend into parts – in our home, we divide it into eight; i.e:<\/p>\n Now sit with your kids during the week and decide how they would like to spend each part of the weekend, remembering to keep at least 2-3 parts for getting some work done, or preparing for tests etc.<\/p>\n Of course, this will change almost every weekend, as sports schedules, socials and even exams dictate (in which case you would need more time for work and less time for play). Try to keep a routine, if possible.<\/p>\n This has proven effective not only to keep the family organised and helping the kids to manage their time but also in being grateful for the weekend. No more, ahh “but I dont get to play”, or “all the other kids are going, why cant I?” or Mum nagging “what about NS this week?” – everybody knows whats coming up and whats happening when!<\/p>\n For more help on keeping your kids stay organised, you may contact the following services:<\/p>\n Note: If you enjoyed this article, and would like to stay updated with more, you can:<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Organisation is undoubtedly the key to success! Start teaching your kids time management and how to be organised with these superb tips<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":351593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discipline","category-exams"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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How to teach kids to manage their time over weekends<\/h3>\n
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Call for help!<\/h3>\n
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