Establishing a schedule is one of the first topics I discuss with my parents, so I feel it is an appropriate topic to start with. A schedule helps regulate your day by allotting specific blocks of time to certain activities. According to the Center on the Social & Emotional Foundations for Early Learning “Studies have documented that schedules and routines influence children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development. Predictable and consistent schedules in preschool classrooms help children feel secure and comfortable. Also, schedules and routines help children understand the expectations of the environment and reduce the frequency of behavior problems, such as tantrums and acts of aggression.”
As adults, we have typically experienced schedules in many aspects of our lives be it school schedules, work schedules, athletic schedules, etc. It would be hard to imagine a world without schedules; no set time to go to work, no set time to get projects turned in, no set time to pick the kids up from school. It would be hard to get things accomplished and if you are like me you probably got a little stressed out thinking of that much lack of structure. Lack of structure can have the same negative impacts on children. According to A Place of Our Own expert Moises Roman of the UCLA Early Care and Education Department “When children have too many unknowns, anxiety builds up and they start showing emotional reactions to inconsistency.”
Children do not come pre-programmed with schedules and routines; it is something that parents have to teach through implementation. Establishing a schedule is easy and does not take very much time, just think about different activities that you need to do daily. Important items to put in your daily schedule include meals and sleep time. If your children are school aged, a lot of their daily schedule is already created for them in the hours that they spend at school.
Remember, it is not important that every minute of your day be planned. I worked with a parent that made up a daily schedule mapping out what they would be doing down to half hour increments. When I asked how she was doing following her schedule, she said she was not able to. I was not surprised. You need some wiggle room in your day or you will not stick to the schedule.
The goal in establishing a schedule is that over time it will turn into a routine. This cannot happen if you do not remain consistent with your schedule. There is room for the occasional slip up, but if you set family dinner to be at 7p each night and find that Monday dinner started at 5:30p, Tuesday dinner started at 8p, Wednesday dinner started at 6:30p, etc. you should probably reevaluate when it would be practical for your family to start dinner and push yourself to stick to that time.
When you are ready to create your own schedule, you might visit About.com (http://childparenting.about.com/od/lifeathome/a/familyschedule.htm) where they have put together an article titled 5 Easy Steps to a Daily Family Schedule. Within the article you can find links to other helpful websites for developing a family schedule.
More information can be found by visiting the following websites:
- · Center on the Social & Emotional Foundations for Early Learning http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/wwb/wwb3.html
- · A Place of Our Own Discussion http://aplaceofourown.org/question_detail.php?id=47
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