Student Planner – Helping Your Child Get Organized
Is Your Child Ready to Start Using Their Own Planner?
Beginning the habit of organization and time management comes at different times for different kids. When your child is ready to take on the responsibility of time management, getting them a simple and easy to use planner may be an effective strategy.
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My daughter, when she hit nine years old, asked me if she could have a planner. She always saw me filling in my planners and I guess that sparked her interest. I love planning and so some of my habits may have rubbed off on my daughter. I have always believed that I am more productive when I write out my tasks and goals. If I neglect to do that, I find that my productivity level goes way down. I don’t know if everyone is like this, but I have met quite a few other women who share my love of to-do lists, check-off boxes, and post-it notes. 🙂
I like to use fun pens, stickers, and really get my planners to work for me. While I used to buy my planners, once I discovered how to make my own, I never looked back. I now create and design planners for myself (and now my children) to suit my needs. I decided to use this same strategy to create a planner for my daughter.
Benefits of Your Child Using a Planner
Learning to organize and prioritize activities in life is an important life skill. We are not born with this skill, it has to be taught to us. Many of us learn our organization skills by simply observing our parents. This could be good or bad, depending on the style you followed. Luckily there are so many resources available to help us grow in our organization skills. We should always be learning.
I wanted to make sure that I gave my children the opportunity to learn the skills of organization. I still have a lot of growth to do myself and feel as if I am always learning how to better organize my life. (Many times us creative folk struggle to keep our plentiful ideas in an orderly way).
Teaching Your Child How to Use a Planner and Prioritize Tasks
When your child is ready to take on the task of organization, here are some tips:
Allow them to personalize their planner in any way that they want. Add color, stickers, drawings, etc. Allow the planner to be theirs (not yours 🙂 You can even use colored paper to print their planner on if you choose one that is a printable.
Fill in the dates for their monthly pages. Add in any important events for the month.
Go over any budget goals they may have (if you are working on budgeting with your child)
Guide them at the beginning of each week. Go over what tasks they need to complete each week. Help them to plan out any goals that they may have or any daily items they may need to accomplish. Ask them guiding questions such as:
“What is the most important thing you want to finish this week?”
“Is there anything that you need from me to help you meet that goal?”
“What is in your schedule for the day?”
“Are there any supplies that you need to help you accomplish what is necessary in your planner for the week?”
You know your child best, if daily help is necessary at first as they learn the habit of organization, then set aside some time each morning to go over the tasks for the day.
I Have Designed This Simple Printable Planner For My Child:
Items Your Child Can Place in Their Planner:
Birthdays
Holidays
Homework
Chores
Money-Earning opportunities (yard sales, entrepreneur fairs, etc.)
Church Events
Supplies You Can Purchase to Make Keeping a Planner More Engaging
Stickers
Highlighters
Fun and colorful pens
Erin Condren Kids Planner (if you are looking for a very thorough and comprehesive all in one planner)
See my picks below:
“When we teach our children how to be organized and prioritize their daily activities, we set our children up for success in life.”
ACreativeLearner.com
