The Fab Mom On 2: Teaching Kids Time Management
Year after year, college admissions distribute notices about how today's students are lacking time-management skills. How do you teach kids about managing time?
- Set a timer at home. Small children and older students do not often have a grasp of how long 20 minutes is. Show them how time really works by setting a timer at home within the context of their own activities -- during play, study time and screen time.
- Let them be bored. Overscheduled kids have trouble learning how to productively use time if every hour is scheduled with an activity and they aren't given opportunities to figure out what to do with time they have. Many psychologists have long-suggested that boredom breeds problem-solving skills, increased creativity and more overall happiness.
- Model managed screen time. A parent who models and discusses screen-time management and limits more often has a child who is capable of eventually doing the same, whether after school or away at college. The new app unGlue unites parents, children and teens to set time-management limits and guidelines for screen-time usage together. UnGlue lets kids track their own screen time, check their own schedules, earn more screen time by doing an activity and/or chores and more. Parents set the limits via the app, the kids manage it. App can be downloaded free of charge.
More free information and resources for managing family time and digital use is available at SafeSmartSocial.com.
Jill Simonian is an Author of the new book for first-time moms The FAB Mom's Guide: How to Get Over the Bump & Bounce Back Fast After Baby and Parenting Lifestyle Contributor for CBS Los Angeles every Wednesday on News at 5pm and Friday mornings at 6:45am. Her personal blog is TheFabMom.com. Follow Jill on Twitter @jillsimonian and connect with her on Facebook.
