Your go-to schedule and plan for balancing play, learning and structure for large amounts of time with your child (i.e., slow summer days, school holidays). Try our daily activity chart that has been child-parent-teacher approved.
Learn
Basic Concepts
Each summer or school holiday season, we hear the universal question, “What should I do with my child that balances play, learning and structure so that neither parent nor child goes crazy?”
There are many schools of thought on how to structure large amounts of time for children. At Plinkit, our approach has been tested on what is doable, developmentally appropriate and effective to:
- Support your child’s individual choice and freedom;
- Build your child’s self-help skills and independence;
- Help parents carve-out time of their own;
- Build fundamental child development skills;
- Develop family connection.
Do
Your Step-by-Step Guide
- Brainstorm with your child what they would like to do over this time period, but specifically ask your child:
- “What adventures would you like to experience?”
- “What skills would you like to practice?”
- “What new things would you like to learn to do?”
- “What tricky and hard things would you like to try?”
- Note: a collaborative approach will ensure buy-in and enthusiasm. Makes for a fun breakfast or dinner conversation.
- Introduce the concept of daily tasks – Anything that you would like your child to do every day.
- Tasks should last ~20 minutes each, but can be shorter or longer based on developmental age. Try to include activities in key areas like: reading; writing (or spelling if your child is older); counting (or essential math concepts if your child is older); exercise; chores; and mindfulness. Key areas could be the same or different each day. Tailor it to your child!
- Note: these tasks are about routinely building opportunity for your child in key areas, not about measuring progress or skill level.
- Create a list of activities – List 1 to 3 activities for each key area that you and your child have agreed upon (could be more depending on your child’s developmental age and interest). The list of activities could be the same or different each day. You and your child decide!
- PRINT this ‘task-oriented’ schedule – Encourage your child to track and celebrate their success. They complete, they get to mark their success!
- Post the list and chart in a central location.
- Motivation and rewards – Maybe
- For some children, checking-off the tasks may be satisfaction enough; others may need external motivation (try the word ‘initiative’ for your Marble Jar).
- Since the goal is to complete all tasks daily, link an incentive to the list as a whole.
- For example: completing all tasks could earn 20 minutes of screen time, or 30 minutes at the park, or a sticker (and then five stickers earns a new book or puzzle).
- You know your child best. Decide what motivates your child and go from there.
Helpful Tips
- Celebrate completion of individual tasks and the self-motivation your child demonstrates.
- If you notice that your child is resisting, revisit the list and discuss what your child feels is doable. They may need more physical help from you, shorter activities, a new incentive, etc.
- It’s OK if your child does not make it through every task every day. By simply initiating this structure, you will already be:
- Developing executive functioning skills, like organization and planning;
- Sharpening pre-academic skills that will make the transition back to formal routines much easier.
- Sprinkle-in unstructured play throughout the day – a lot!
- Every child learns uniquely. Some kids want to get everything done right away; others are keen to complete a task, play, move on to something else, then re-commit to another task.
- After a few days, your child will likely remember the routine of consulting their daily activity chart and completing tasks in the order they choose.
- Setting a timer can help develop a sense of time and accountability.
- Once this routine is established, you will find time for your own to-do list while your child is engaged in their own tasks – a great way to promote independence.
- If your child complains, “I’m bored!”, refer them child to their unfinished list (albeit, teaching your child to be bored is also important).
- If some skills on their daily activity chart require effort, consider it a skill-building gift in perseverance and grit.
- For a more time-oriented structure, consider this schedule.