Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Improving time management skills

I don't know if this would be feasible with your school (I know it wouldn't have been with our regular school), but my new system for DS11 in his e-school is showing all the signs of being a success on several levels.

With e-school, all the assignments and tests for each week are right there in front of him, of course -- it was extremely hit-or-miss to know what was assigned and when it was due last year with the regular school. However, the assignments are still scattered among all of his seven classes in the listings, and he has a habit of cherry-picking and then staying up late in a panic to finish the things he put off because they were worse.

Anyway, I got him a weekly planner where the whole week is across two pages, in columns. On Monday, he wrote every assignment for every class in that column (and it ran out of room and squished into the bottom margin). Everything that had five or more days to go, he highlighted green. Everything that had three or four days to go, he highlighted yellow. Everything that had one or two days to go, he highlighted red (pink). Everything that he did that day, he crossed off, and what was left was rewritten into Tuesday's column and highlighted accordingly. And so on through the week.

My plan for this was to show him what happens when he lets things pile up, with a highly visual demonstration. AND to show him at a glance which things he needs to do first, because they are due soonest -- pink is going critical, yellow is getting there, and green can wait till the others are done. He's picked up quickly on prioritizing with this.

The other bonus is that he can see how much work he's put in this week, as the list has dramatically shrunk down to just a few things by today. He feels good at having accomplished so much, things are getting done in proper order, and if he falls behind as new assignments come in, it will be immediately obvious.

I know this doesn't necessarily help with the "getting things done instead of doodling while you're supposed to be working", but it might -- because there's a very tangible picture of what's left to do and how long you have to do it.

We couldn't have done this in his classes last year, because a great deal of the problem was that even with the Power School system, the teachers weren't that great at posting everything that was assigned AS it was assigned, and he was predictably awful at remembering that he had anything to do. He's never managed to use the regular planners that the school gives out every year.

Pomodoro Technique looks great. Today I had her estimate how much time assignments would take and work to try to get them done in that time, using a timer. She did go over a few times, but I think that was instructive in itself. Actually, this worked REALLY well! I don't know if it was exciting because it was new and won't work after a week or what, but just that simple change kept her on task much better. Then she completed her work in time to work on some art and take a walk, even though she also had an afterschool activity right in the middle of afterschool time--big win.

I am glad you gave it a try.

My ds gets a ton of homework too. It can get overwhelming for everyone if he don't keep up. The Anti-Homework crowd would not like this place. The teacher that put this out is wonderful. She tries to not give too much homework in her class because she knows the kids get a lot in all the other classes.
The way it is written seems very respectful to the kids and their time.

I'm bumping this because we're struggling. I am being proactive with the timer--for each assignment, I ask her to estimate how much time it will take, and then she sets the timer for that amount and has it at her desk. She gets a short breaks when she finishes something (haven't quite been organized enough to Pomodoro). This sometimes works, but at other times she will not finish in the first attempt, or the second. I do not watch her work...she is in her room (working in the living room where her brother is does NOT work) at her desk, which is mildly distracting, but there are no electronics in there and I do peek my head in. At times, she has taken 1.5 hours or more to finish a math sheet, or 40 minutes on a simple social studies assignment.

While I know the math is harder this year (these sheets may be 40 problems, many multi-step...too much), DD has no time management issues at school, always finishes in-class work and tests on time, and is a straight A student. I really don't know what she does in there in her room, other than zone out or possibly stress out. She DOES do a very good job on her HW--it is neatly done, carefully thought out, etc. I have encouraged her to get through it more quickly and not be so meticulous, to no avail. She always finishes and is relatively organized, with assignments done when due, but too much time is spent.

It is killing me to see how much time she is spending. DH says he identifies with this and that for him, the issue required an almost cell-like area for work with zero interesting items. Help???

ETA: Middle school application stress may be a factor. She's worried about getting in to the "right" school. She will, and I've made it clear to her that she will.

I realise I may be barking up the wrong tree, but I'm really going to push what I said before - get her to distinguish between time when she's working (timer is running) and not working (timer is paused) by making that distinction explicit. Then, once she can see that she's taking 30 minutes pause vs 10 minutes work, you have a hope of her making progress. For as long as she doesn't make that distinction, and genuinely thinks it takes her 40 mins to do this work, there's no hope. I think.

If the process of eliminating distractions hasn't yielded positive results, then maybe the solution is to introduce positive distractions. There was a thread here a while back where a number of us admitted that having music or the television going on in the background actually helped us focus on homework, and get it done quicker. For my DD9, the TV would definitely be a problem, but just having me nearby and able to respond to her commentary or questions is enough to keep her focused and on-task.

The issue here is often one of mood management. The child doesn't have an issue with doing school work at school, because that's what that time is for, and she has nothing better to do. At home, there's resentment, because that's perceived as her free time, homework is an unwelcome encroachment, and there are many ways she could be spending that time. So, how can the experience be made less miserable?

Do you have a chess clock? That might be effective for tracking on-task/off-task time, if she can remember to hit it when she takes a break and again when she gets back to work.

We will use the radio softly to help as a controlled distraction. I have also thrown in the timer on the stove with cookies baking to shake it up a bit. My ds was almost in a rebellion phase last year with taking too much time on his homework. It seemed at times he wanted it to be painful. To be honest some of it could have been me just wanting him to be faster. We don't have to use the timer any more. He might mess around a bit but gets on task relatively quick now.

Could be? I don't know. I actually had DH sit with her and watch her work yesterday, to see how much time she was off task. Answer? Not a lot, though she did tend to jabber soemwhat to DH. She finished the work faster with him in the room, but one math sheet (front and back) still took an hour+. It is laborious math, but not difficult for her. Okay, it is quite laborious. They are doing things like 7893.43/ 56.01. (I just made that up, but division of lengthy decimals, basically) This is 6th grade Common Core math (she is in 5th) so not extremely advanced or anything. I do feel she finds it more challenging than past work. I wonder if she is hitting a slight wall, math-wise.


This is an interesting perspective. Yes, she is resentful. She hates the homework. She has been asking me recently to homeschool her, which is new. (My response to this is basically, "No, because they would find both our dead bodies on the living room floor.") I need to explore that statement further, because she will say she is socially happy at school and the work is not too hard, but still we get that. She does have two good friends who are HSed and whose parents are pretty vocal about the disadvantages of public schooling.

I doubt she is hitting a wall, but it could be she's not one of those kids that is going to be fast or fluent with computations. DD8 with her ADHD would probably spend hours as well. I talked to the teacher about her being slow and a possible reduced workload and he said they don't give a lot of work anyway, they fly through the concepts. Need to learn long division? Here are a few practice problems. Done. (she's in a magnet). I'm going to start a new thread because I'm wondering how necessary it really is to be "fluent" or fast when calculators exist.