A Matter Of Time

As parents, we’ve all seen our school-aged kids experience
overwhelming frustration when it comes to homework. But sometimes it’s not the
number of assignments that’s causing stress. After all, who hasn’t seen their
child wait until the night before to begin
studying for a test or planning a major project? While it’s not uncommon for
children to be unrealistic about how long it takes to complete their
assignments, the good news is that a simple time management technique may be
all that’s needed to get your student on track. Here, Emily Levy, owner of the
Manhattan-based tutoring service EBL Coaching, offers some tips to help your
child get organized and focused.

*Purchase a proper assignment book. You’ll want to make sure
the book has only one day per page,
with a section for each class, so that your child has plenty of space to write
down assignments.

*Ask your child to organize the page into four columns: ET
(estimated time), AT (actual time), O (Order) and D (Done). Each sheet might
look something like this:

*Explain to your child that she only has to write down assignments in the “Assignment” column while at
school. Then, after about a 20-minute break after school (enough time for a
quick snack), she should begin completing the sheet.

*Begin by asking your child to estimate how much time each
assignment will take to complete and write it in the ET (Estimated Time) column.
For example, he might predict that it will take 20 minutes to complete a math
worksheet, 40 minutes to study for a spelling test and 35 minutes to answer
questions from his science text book.

*Next, your child should complete the O (Order) column by
ordering the assignments based on which one she will do first, second, third, etc.
It is generally better for students to do the longer, more complex tasks first,
since they tend to have more energy early on. Also, attempting a harder task
first leaves time to call a friend or reach out to a parent if they need help.

*Your child should then start working on the first assignment
and time herself to see how long it actually takes, then write that time in the AT (actual) time section. Use an analog
clock rather than a digital one so she can visually see the time passing.

*Finally, once each assignment is done and put away, your
child should check off the D (Done) column.

A completed assignment book page might look like this:

When students first use this strategy, they often find that
there is a large discrepancy between the estimated and actual time. However, as
they practice, kids will become more realistic about how long tasks actually take
to complete, and in essence, build better time management skills.

Other tips to consider:

*Give your child a realistic sense of how time passes, and
help him learn to transition from one activity to the next by using time
increments for every day activities. For example, if he is playing a game on
the computer, tell him how much time he has left to play, and then set a timer
near him that will go off when the minutes have passed.

*Set up a behavior chart or report card goal to help with
task initiation and make children aware of distracting habits that often delay
getting them started. Eventually, these goals should become more automatic and
children will no longer need to write them down.

*As children progress through school, the demands will grow
exponentially as the quantity of work increases: more tests, longer assignments
and multi-step projects. The more children practice these strategies, the more
efficient they will become at managing their time. Ultimately, their efforts
should pay off with continued academic success.

Emily Levy is the
owner of EBL Coaching, a specialized one-on-one and small group tutoring
service catering to students in Pre-K through 12^th grade. For more
info, visit eblcoaching.com.