Pretend for a moment that it is midnight. Or is it?
Suddenly, all of the clocks in your home have become dysfunctional. Every timepiece has broken; even your computer and cell phone are displaying error messages instead of the correct time.
Minutes and hours are marching onward, yet you have no idea how many have passed. Is it time to eat? Is it time to leave? Is it time to expect your loved one’s return, or is there more time to wait? Without an effective timepiece, you simply have no idea!
This bizarre existence is reality for our children.
A youngster has no idea when a minute begins or an hour ends. To a child that cannot tell time, the difference between a day and a week is difficult to describe.
It is helpful to explain to a children what a minute is by demonstrating a familiar task that takes that long. For example: It takes one minute to walk from our home to the Smith’s house. Five minutes is how much time it takes to sweep the kitchen and hallway. (Now the little prince or princess has something useful to do when you say, “wait five minutes!”)
Once a child has a basic understanding of time, smoother transitions between activities will occur when he has warning that the task at hand is about to end. Saying, “In two minutes we have to leave the playground!” will give your son the ability to mentally wind down from the current activity.
Just as you would not want your spouse to suddenly interrupt your reading and say, “We have to leave right now”- your child also requires advance warning in order to facilitate a smoother transition from one activity to the next.
Despite the fact that the youngster is not the individual who is creating the schedule, the knowledge that the project at hand is going to be replaced by another task will give enable her be emotionally prepared for the change.
As we go about our busy days as well as the more relaxing periods of time with our children, let’s remember to take the time to verbally prepare them for whatever is coming next.
Here’s to happier and smoother transitions throughout the day!