How to Impart Time Management to Your Child

Handling multiple tasks within a set timeframe, planning something and completing it before the prescribed time, and doing all these things without getting stressed are necessary abilities that will help maintain stable mental well-being.

If you impart time management to your child, they can perform these abilities efficiently, preventing them from getting overwhelmed with their tasks.

Being constantly overwhelmed can undo every effort you have put into ensuring they have stable mental well-being.

To provide guidance to your child about the value of time management, you must lay down rules that will guide them.

Let them know when you want them to wake up, sleep, get ready for school, come back from school, finish chores, attend extracurriculars, and so on.

When you make these rules, be sure to include consequences for their failure to follow the rules.

With the consequences, they will understand that the rules are severe and should not be disobeyed.

If they disobey, activate the consequences and watch them try to change.

To know different ways to impart time management to your child, be sure to explore this article:

Lay Down the Rules

Rules help bring order and structure to any environment. With directions, everyone will understand how a place works and should not work.

You need rules if you want to impart time management to your child.

When you set rules regarding time for your kids, they will understand that they should follow the structure you have laid down.

When laying down the rules, ensure clarity in the phrasing of the words.

Don't use ambiguous words; only simple words.

Don't equate your kids to yourself; they don't have your vocabulary.

Hence, you need to go down to their grammar level and use words they will clearly understand.

Also, you have to be consistent with what you mean and how you enforce it.

If your rules maintain that they must be home by 6 pm, stick to it.

Don't permit 6:30 pm without any cogent reason.

Once you start permitting flouting of rules, the rules will no longer be effective.

Moreover, communicate with them about the rules.

Although you are the parent and have power over them, discussing the rules with them would be great if they have a situation you have not considered.

By asking them what they feel about the time, you would be able to draw out scenarios you may not have considered.

Dole Out Consequences 

Consequences are essential to all rules since they consist of the enforcement mechanism for any rule.

Thus, you need them if you want to impart time management to your child.

As you outline the time rules in your house, ensure you put the consequences by them.

Doing this will ensure that your child immediately understands what will happen if they fail to do the right thing.

Be clear with the consequences, so they don't say they didn't know what to expect.

Immediately they do something wrong, let them know the consequence of their action.

Don't tell them a week after.

Doing it immediately will let them know you don't like their action and prevent them from thinking they almost got away with it.

If you regularly give the same consequence for the same offense, they keep committing, switch up the penalty.

You can change it from doing dishes to mowing the lawn to writing lengthy pages of apologetic words.

Don't stick to a consequence if it's not working.

Reward Good Time Management 

To encourage good behavior when you impart time management to your child, give them rewards.

Kids love winning and getting rewards.

When they get something good, it will fuel them to continue replicating the good habits so that they may get more rewarding things.

The most accessible form of reward is praise and compliments.

And kids cannot help but swoon over praises from their parents.

Therefore, ensure you have praises ready in hand when your child comes home early or wakes up early; they will need those compliments.

You can even reward them with extra time since you are trying to teach time management.

You may increase their curfew if they come home early, allowing them to wait behind at school and play more.

Doing this will teach them the benefits of completing tasks on time and having more time to enjoy.

If there's money for gifts, you can reward them with gifts, movie tickets, musical show tickets, fun social activities, and other related activities.

You will reinforce their desire to go good when you give them these rewards.

Tell Stories of Time Management Applications 

Children love listening to stories, and what better way to impart time management to your child apart from telling them about heroes in fantasy worlds that saved their kingdoms using time?

You can find children's bedtime stories in many online and offline bookstores.

You may even find them in free articles on the Internet.

When you get one, you can modify the story to include some bits of time management, allowing you to highlight the skill in your account.

When telling the story, don't rush into time management immediately.

Doing this may show that you are interested in teaching them rather than telling them a beautiful story.

So, you should tell the story with the necessary emotions and let them enjoy the adventure and action.

Once you are done with the story, ask them what they have learned.

If time management were evident in the story, it would be one of the lessons they would mention.

However, it's not a big deal if they don't mention it.

Mention it and pinpoint what part of the story it was highlighted.

Lead by Example 

As with every skill for children to learn, there's a need for a role model the child will emulate.

Therefore, to impart time management to your child, you should lead by example.

Leading by example means you will be punctual in every action you take.

Waking up, dressing up, doing chores, going to work, coming back, and sleeping should be controlled by timelines.

You should stick to these timelines if you want your child to see what you are doing and follow your lead.

You also have to allow them to talk to you about the struggles of learning the skill.

Children can't process like adults; hence your child won't be able to understand time management quickly.

Be open to them so when they have issues, they will be free to come to you.

As a role model, you should only encourage them.

Don't force them, nor should you pressure them with your words.

Show them what you do, how you do it, and the benefits you get from being good at managing your time.

Conclusion

Once your child is equipped with time management, they can manage their activities well and have spare time to ensure their mental well-being is not in disarray.

If you desire to provide life guidance and impart time management to your child, you should lay down rules, dole out consequences, reward good behavior, tell stories of time management applications, and be a good example.

Resources 

https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-5-cs-of-effective-discipline-setting-rules-for-children#1

https://www.verywellfamily.com/make-consequences-more-effective-1094774

https://www.verywellfamily.com/free-and-low-cost-reward-ideas-for-kids-1094890

https://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/1028681/ways-to-teach-your-kids-storytelling/

https://www.train-aid.co.uk/blog/punctuality-in-teaching-10-tips-for-success

https://www.caycon.com/blog/seven-actions-of-a-true-role-model-entrepreneur/amp