How to Teach Time Management to Children

I learned time management by reading John Maxwell*, Steven Covey* and Benjamin Franklin. This skill has made a world of difference in my life. But I couldn’t expect my high school foreign language students to do all of this reading. So I simplified what I learned and created a short lesson.

I wanted students to know how to manage their time, so they would be able to complete their homework assignments and projects. I ended my language lesson a little early one Friday, and asked them to take out paper and pen.

I told them I wanted to help them have time for fun, while still finishing their school work. This got their attention. I explained when I was in South Africa for two years; I worked pretty much all the time. When I decided to come back to the U.S., I knew I wanted to “get a life”. To do so, I needed to identify specifics. I wrote five goals on the board.

1.   Spend more time with family and friends.

2.   Increase my level of fitness.

3.   Have fun.

4.   Buy a dog.

5.   Earn enough money to live comfortably.

I answered their questions about my goals. Then I asked them to suggest something I might want or need to do during the upcoming weekend. As they shouted out suggestions, I wrote about fifteen of them on the board. They included chores like doing laundry, going shopping, cleaning the house, grading papers, and fun activities like going to the beach, going to the movies, etc.

I told students to put an “A” by the most important activity or task, “B” by the next significant and “C” next to those not really important at all. They all said grading papers was most important. I asked them where that appeared on my list of goals. It may have been important to the school or to them, but it was not on my list, so it only received a “C”, the lowest of the three choices. They understood. It was a real eye opener. We went through all activities until they all had letters next to them.

Then we ranked the items in each category by urgency, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. So all items on the list were placed into the time management grid: Important-Urgent, Important-Not Urgent, Not Important-Urgent, Not Important-Not Urgent.

This lesson helped them schedule their time by their own priorities, not those of someone else. It may have been most important for them to do school work, since it would help them reach their college goals. But my goals were not theirs. My goal was to get a life. After this little exercise, they understood the first step is always to identify long term and short term goals. When they did so, they finished more school work while experiencing less stress and having more fun.

More information on time management:

*Covey- CLICK HERE

*Maxwell- CLICK HERE

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How to Take Control of Your Life

I grew up with the space program. My father worked for North American Aviation, which broke the sound barrier. They became Rocketdyne and sent men into space. Eventually, with another name change, they put men on the moon. It was no surprise then I became a candidate for NASA’s Teacher in Space Program.

The application was grueling. Out of 50,000 teachers who requested one, only 10,000 were returned. Mine was one of them. One task I had to complete before doing so was to acquire three letters of recommendation. I received one from my school principal, the city manager where I lived (and was a civic leader), and one from my school superintendent.

I’ll never forget the lesson I learned when I went to pick up my letter from my superintendent. His letter was glorious, but it was what he said to me that made a significant difference in my life.

He said I was doing way too much. I was very active at my school, in my school district, my home and my city. He thought I was participating in some activities I didn’t even care about. He was right. I was often appointed to tasks and committees and given responsibilities that were of no interest to me.

He told me to just say NO. I had heard that before. I had seen the message on billboards. But I never thought I had permission to use the word. He told me to say No to every request, unless it was something I loved doing. I explained some of the “requests” were from my boss. He said it didn’t matter. Find a way. Use the word.

I was lucky to hear this, but in an odd coincidence, later that week I was conducting a lesson on three French verbs, vouloir, pouvoir and devoir. The text gave a simple example of how these verbs can be used. It translates to, “I would love to, but, I’m sorry, I can’t, I have to…” This phrase has saved me lots of energy, exasperation and arguments.

I began to use it, still do. But I also taught it to friends and students. It’s a way to excuse yourself from anything you wish to avoid without causing animosity in others. I now do only what fits my personal goals and say no to the rest. I didn’t go into space, but attempting to do so provided advice I have benefitted from for decades.

You are reading from the blog, RoadtoFreeCollege.com, where we empower families with knowledge to navigate the path to higher education without the burden of excessive loans.

For more information, you’ll want my book, Free College, CLICK HERE. It teaches families how to help their kids become more successful in school, college, and life.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no cost to you.

Photo Credit: Google Images

Valuable Advice from My School Superintendent

I grew up with the space program. My father worked for North American Aviation, which broke the sound barrier. They became Rocketdyne and sent men into space. Eventually, with another name change, they put men on the moon. It was no surprise then I became a candidate for NASA’s Teacher in Space Program.

The application was grueling. Out of 50,000 teachers who requested one, only 10,000 were returned. Mine was one of them. One task I had to complete before doing so was to acquire three letters of recommendation. I received one from my school principal, the city manager where I lived (and was a civic leader), and one from my school superintendent.

I’ll never forget the lesson I learned when I went to pick up my letter from my superintendent. His letter was glorious, but it was what he said to me that has made a significant difference in my life.

He said I was doing way too much. I was very active at my school, in my school district, my home and my city. He thought I was participating in some activities I didn’t even care about. He was right. I was often appointed to tasks and committees and given responsibilities that were of no interest to me.

He told me to just say NO. I had heard that before. I had seen the message on billboards. But I never thought I had permission to use the word. He told me to say No to every request, unless it was something I loved doing. I explained some of the “requests” were from my boss. He said it didn’t matter. Find a way. Use the word.

I was lucky to hear this, but in an odd coincidence, later that week I was doing a lesson on three French verbs, vouloir, pouvoir and devoir. The text gave a simple example of how these verbs can be used. It translates to, “I would love to, but, I’m sorry, I can’t, I have to …” This phrase has saved me lots of energy, exasperation and arguments.

I began to use it, still do. But I also taught it to friends and students. It’s a way to excuse yourself from anything you wish to avoid without causing animosity in others. I now do only what fits my personal goals and say no to the rest. I didn’t go into space, but attempting to do so provided advice I have benefitted from for decades.


For more information, you'll want my new book, Free College Awareness, coming soon from Griffin Publishing and Watering Seeds. It shows how to avoid needing college loans; available soon to families of Pre-K through High School students.

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How to Turn Time into Money for College

Lots of people are busy, yet not everyone reaches his/her goals. If becoming the ideal college scholarship or grant applicant seems like a good idea, then learning how to manage time is important. When teaching students who would soon become the first in their families to go to college, I knew scholarships were vital.

I used a simple illustration to show them how to use their time wisely to help reach this goal. I had them write down their five year goals. One, of course, was to graduate high school, another to be accepted to the college of their choice, a third was to earn lots of scholarship money. The others varied.

Once they did this, I asked them to write down all the activities they were planning to do over the weekend. Then they looked at each one, and asked themselves, “Will doing this help me reach one of my goals?” If the answer was yes, they put an “A” next to it; if not, they labeled it with a “C”; if they weren’t sure, they used the letter “B”.

The next step was to decide if the items were urgent or not urgent. Was there some sort of time constraint on the activity, like studying for a test to be taken on Monday? They ranked each activity in each category in order of urgency, using numbers 1 through whatever.

Over the weekend, they finished all the activities in category “A” in numerical order. Then they completed category “B” and some of category “C”. This not only helped them pinpoint the important items which were urgent, but kept the urgent, but not important items from distracting them.

When students used their goals as a measuring stick for selecting activities to do, they were less confused, stressed or frustrated. They also moved closer to reaching their goals. This is just one of the strategies my students used to earn Full Ride scholarships to college. Others are in my book, Free College Awareness, coming soon from Griffin Publishing and Watering Seeds.

You are reading from the blog: http://www.roadtofreecollege.com

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