How to teach kids time management

Let's go! 

Hurry up! 

What's taking you so long?,  

Do you know what time it is?

Do these phrases sound familiar to you? Do you find yourself as a parent sometimes wondering whether you're raising kids who have no concept of time?? Sometimes you find yourself yelling almost every morning before school. 

Well, you can help your kids normalize managing their time. How do you help kids acquire time management skills?? 

1. Educate them on the importance of managing time. 

Right from a young age, let your kids know that time never stops. If they fail to do something they needed to do at a particular time, they will never recover that time. When they understand the need of being time conscious, they will be intrinsically motivated to do everything on time. 

2. Establish a routine and let them take part it making it. 

Schools run smoothly with hundreds of students and few teachers since there is a routine. Why then should it be hard to establish a routine with your 1 or 2 kids?? The child's brain responds well to routine. Involve them in making a schedule on time for homework, sleeping, waking up, preparing and going to school. This allows them to feel in control but still under your terms as a parent. 

3. Schedule free time and do not overtask their every minute. 

We all value free time. Children need it too. If they have free time, they will not find it hard to adhere to time that they have to do serious tasks like preparing for school. 

4. Do not nag, bribe, or Force when they're not being time conscious. 

Nagging makes a child defiant. If you bribe your child to do homework on time, you're reducing intrinsic motivation. Don't give rewards when your child finishes homework on time! It is their responsibility to do homework! The motivation should come from within the child! If they're not motivated to do homework, you can educate them on the importance of doing their homework. Again, if you force the child, they will think it's your responsibility to make them do it. However, it should always be Their responsibility. 

5. Allow your child to face natural consequences. 

Most of the times parents wonder what if the child fails to do homework, what should they do?? If you have already educated them on the importance of homework, allocated time for homework, and yet they don't do it, allow them face natural consequences. 

Let them go to school and explain to Their teacher why they didn't do the homework. Tell them failure to do homework might result to not retaining the information and they will not perform well in their exam. It's better they fail in an exam while in grade 3, than when they're in college. 

6. Do not panic on their behalf. 

If your child fails to do homework, don't panic. Let the child panic for their failure. Don't panic that they will miss the school bus (especially children above 7 years) 

Ask yourself, when you're late for work and you find your boss, is it the boss that panics or it's you?? Let children learn responsibility early. This will reduce these kinds of generation Z who don't care about their mistakes at work (They will come late, unkempt, drunk with zero chills.) Why? Someone was panicking on their behalf when they were young. It was the parent who was always worried that the child will be late for school or will be punished for not doing homework. 

Let children own up their responsibility. Let them have control over time management. But under your terms. It will reduce you having to push them around. 

© Joyce Mwai

Writer/ Parenting Coach/ Teenage mentor