Planning is an important skill for both classroom success and a healthy, happy life. It is the thinking skill that helps children develop strategies to accomplish goals, and helps a them to think through the steps needed to complete a task before beginning it.
Academically, Planning is a vital skill for academic advancement, as it facilitates the ability to set strategies, prioritize actions, and accomplish goals. Planning is an integral thinking skill for many of the sciences as well as literary subjects. It is an important skill for completion of long-term academic projects, and becomes an increasingly crucial skill as students move into higher levels of education, where they must juggle multiple classes, assignments and exams together with a variety of short, and long-term projects.
Below, you’ll find some general strategies and ideas for helping kids to improve their Planning skills.
[cjphs_content_placeholder id=”73542″ random=”no” ]Tips for Developing Kids’ Planning Skills:
1.) Create a master calendar of events to help your child plan ahead. Your child can personalize this calendar with pictures, graphics, stickers, or doodles, and should include important events, meetings, games, and deadlines.
2.) Create checklists with your child of items needed for various activities and events. For example, a checklist for baseball practice might include a bat bag, baseball bat, glove, hat, cleats, and water bottle. These lists can be posted in their room or where the equipment for a given activity is kept.
3.) Have your child plan a day trip or outing, and assist them in identifying what will be needed for the event. For example, if your child wants to go to the zoo, you could advise them to print out a zoo map from the computer, and prioritize the exhibits that they would like to see when they get there.
4.) Make homework a part of your family’s regular routine by establishing a consistent schedule. If necessary, divide homework time into two blocks (one after school, one after dinner), and have your child identify what they hope to complete during each block.
5.) Become an entrepreneur. Create a business plan and open a local business. From encouraging your child to start a lemonade stand in the summer, to finding relatives and neighbors who want some lawn or house care, or providing a service to others such as walking dogs or shoveling snow, even small business ides take some planning. Do something where your child may need to purchase items and plan out the materials needed to operate. For businesses in which he sells effort and labor, it is important to schedule, asses and allot time to devote to such tasks, and decide how best to save or invest his earnings.
