Teaching Children Time Management

“Teaching children how to set boundaries helps with both peer pressure and time management.” ~ Patricia L. Perry
As children develop, they learn that each day has a structure. Developing a sense of time can help them understand what to expect, to know when to move to another activity, and to anticipate exciting events. Learning how to utilize time as a child becomes very useful when the child becomes an executive who has to both prioritize and plan his work, so it’s wise to begin early in your child’s life to teach him about time.
No child likes to wait, so learning about time helps with his sense of anticipation and impatience. From the age of two, children begin to form ideas of time. Slowly, over the next three to five years, they begin to internalize a timeline of events. Once they form these concepts, they can start to use clocks and calendars. By age ten, everything time-related is well within their intellectual grasp. You can encourage the development of this concept by giving them reference points:
What do we need to do first? For young children with routines, we can talk about the steps it may take to complete an activity. “Wake up, then eat breakfast”. School-aged kids can be asked to recite their before or after-school routine and the logic behind routines. “I can’t go to school before I put on a shirt,” or, “I can play as soon as I do my homework.” This builds a sense of both time and independence.

How many counts/minutes/hours will it take? This understanding is great for helping children conceptualize appropriate increments of time for activities or the anticipation of events. “Count to 20 when you wash your hands” or, “The movie is an hour and 30 minutes” or “It takes us 30 minutes to drive to Grandma’s house.” Timers, stopwatches, and calendars are all useful tools for building time concepts.

Remember when…? Asking children to recall events is the simplest way for them to understand the concept of a past. It also helps them to predict how a future even will play out. “Remember when we flew to Disneyland?” or “Remember when you played with the dog? You had a blast!” or “Remember when Grandma said she’d take you to catch a big fish again?”

What will happen next? Toddlers can eat dinner after they wash their hands. Schoolchildren wait for the bus after they get ready for school. Saturdays are for piano lessons. We pick up our toys before we go outside to play with our friends. When you put things into a time contest, all children can understand and eventually help manage their routine.

Although children can’t be expected to embrace time with the maturity of an adult, they can easily become masters of their own routines with your encouragement. Even when playing is so all-encompassing that they lose track of time, children are learning about time. Encourage them to take charge of their habits, and they may impress you with their competence.