A few years ago (well, maybe about 4 or 5...) when Luke was around 4 years old I read a book called "Managers of Their Homes." It was about being organized with homeschooling, housework and taking care of children. The main gist of the book was that everyone had certain tasks to accomplish during the day, and in order to figure out how to fit everything in you first make lists of everyone's important tasks and then make a schedule for everyone, in half hour blocks, to fit the important tasks in.
Nice idea, I thought, but that would never work for me or for any of my kids. Every day is always different, and the kids would surely hate being scheduled for every single half hour!
Fast forward to this summer. I really don't like making my kids do a lot over the summer (ask me how Isquandered spent my summers sometime). But I do think that kids should contribute to the running of the house, and they need to practice, and keeping up with writing over the summer is a good idea. (Note: we do math all the time. Because Mathmom.) So I make them do 3 tasks every day, and it should take between 1 and 1.5 hours.
The problem was that they wouldn't get to their tasks until 1/2 hour before dinner, and then they'd all want to practice at the same time. Or I'd be nagging them to do their tasks all day, trying to get them to stop doing whatever fun thing they were doing and do something moderately unpleasant ("It builds character!"). Or they'd forget. It was a problem. I asked them if they had any ideas about how they could decide when to do their tasks so that I didn't have to interrupt their play or feel anxious that they were forgetting.
"What if we made a schedule?" "Yeah, we could use half hour blocks!" "Then we could write down what time we want to be doing our tasks so you don't have to decide for us!"
So apparently the Managers of Their Homes folks are onto something. I print up a new schedule every day with a column for each person with 1/2 hour blocks marked. I mark when we have errands or appointments or other unavoidable delays. Then whoever is the person of the day schedules their tasks first, followed by the others (in no set order: it hasn't been a problem).
Then I don't have to tell them when to stop play to do a task, they scheduled it themselves. The first days Luke and Amanda filled their whole schedule with their tasks, then Legos, computer, reading, Mythbusters, etc. It really takes the burden off of me and helps them to manage their own time better.
The best part is that they came up with it themselves. That is so much better than my trying to impose something---gotta love it.
Nice idea, I thought, but that would never work for me or for any of my kids. Every day is always different, and the kids would surely hate being scheduled for every single half hour!
Fast forward to this summer. I really don't like making my kids do a lot over the summer (ask me how I
The problem was that they wouldn't get to their tasks until 1/2 hour before dinner, and then they'd all want to practice at the same time. Or I'd be nagging them to do their tasks all day, trying to get them to stop doing whatever fun thing they were doing and do something moderately unpleasant ("It builds character!"). Or they'd forget. It was a problem. I asked them if they had any ideas about how they could decide when to do their tasks so that I didn't have to interrupt their play or feel anxious that they were forgetting.
"What if we made a schedule?" "Yeah, we could use half hour blocks!" "Then we could write down what time we want to be doing our tasks so you don't have to decide for us!"
So apparently the Managers of Their Homes folks are onto something. I print up a new schedule every day with a column for each person with 1/2 hour blocks marked. I mark when we have errands or appointments or other unavoidable delays. Then whoever is the person of the day schedules their tasks first, followed by the others (in no set order: it hasn't been a problem).
Then I don't have to tell them when to stop play to do a task, they scheduled it themselves. The first days Luke and Amanda filled their whole schedule with their tasks, then Legos, computer, reading, Mythbusters, etc. It really takes the burden off of me and helps them to manage their own time better.
The best part is that they came up with it themselves. That is so much better than my trying to impose something---gotta love it.
Comments