My eldest daughter has recently turned 5 and there’s nothing she likes more than doing everything Mum does! I’ve always been a planner and a stationery lover, so it’s no wonder when I sit down to plan my week, that she wants to be involved as well! So how do we get our children involved in planning?
I believe planning and being organised are vital qualities to have in life, to succeed in school, in the workplace and in managing the home. I also believe being spontaneous is fun too! But there’s certainly lots of good things that kids can learn by getting involved with planning at a young age – kids love routine, and even just knowing what they are going to be doing each day is a great place to start. Here are some other tips!
Make it fun!
We don’t want to add yet another thing kids have to do and make planning like a chore – rather, allow kids to choose a fun notebook or notepad design – Padtastic have some really cute kids designs – or a weekly planner from the Goal Keeper kids planner range – and purchase some stickers (there are lots of online planner sticker stores: Posh Design stickers, who have a really beautiful range are available via Padtastic’s website), add some colourful pens and markers, and it immediately becomes a fun activity!
Get them involved alongside you
If you are already a planner and like to sit down on a Sunday afternoon to plan your week, how about asking your child to grab their planner, markers and stickers, and help them plan out their week as well?
So that the whole process isn’t overwhelming, start with only writing or drawing what your kids have on each day (which works for under school-aged kids as well). As planning becomes more of a habit, they could add in their chores, their friend’s birthdays, as well as some fun family goals – the Goal Keeper has a dedicated space for this, which is a great prompt! Older kids can use theirs to add in their homework and when assignments are due, and teenagers can write down their shifts at work – there’s something for everyone!
Having a long to-do list is not going to appeal to many kids, but if they do have a lot of tasks to be done in a week, they could use the number system where you place the numbers 1, 2 or 3 next to each task, with number 1 being the task needed to be done straight away, to prioritise the most important jobs. This assists children to firstly be able to decide which task is most important, as well as learn about priorities, and it helps younger kids with number recognition.
Hopefully, some of these ideas will get your kids started on their planning journey! Have a browse of Padtastic’s website and let me know in the comments which notepad/notebook or Goal Keeper design your kids would choose!
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