August 19, 2008

Do you ever wish you could spend time like you spend money?  I’ll give you $1 for 30 more minutes in the day!  This is actually a great tool though to teach your children about time management.  Creating “money” that they can earn for certain privileges is really a great way to teach them that they must spend their time wisely just as you would teach them they need to spend their money wisely.  My Sister always has jobs her boys can do to earn extra video game time.  My friend Laurieann has also created a product called “Media Money”where they can actually earn coins of time.  If it’s something else they can earn (Littlest Pet Shop playtime with Mommy, or a movie with Dad) you can create something on your own.  It may not even be things they earn, maybe it is just a tool to help them understand how much time is allowed to be devoted to certain things.  You give them an “allowance” every week, and they spend their time throughout the week.  For example I would give Maddie a certain amount of cards at the start of the week (30 minutes of TV, 30 minutes of Littlest Pet Shop playtime with Mommy, 30 minutes of painting time).  This way when it’s time for the activity to finish she understands that she was only allowed a certain amount of time, also if she wants to paint and no longer has paint coupons for the week, then she understands that no amount of begging/fit throwing is going to get her what she wants.

You never know, this tactic may even work for you (1 hour of Olympics coupons… )