Are We There, Yet?

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  How much longer before we get there?  How many more days before my birthday? How many piano practices this week? Young children often have a difficult time waiting because time can’t be touched, seen, heard, tasted, or smelled. Listen to this activity online at the WNMU Podcasts

Materials:

  Paper, crayons, and scissors

 What to do:

  Difficult concepts like time are much easier for children to understand when they are involved in discussing and crossing something off.  These ideas can also be used to help manage chores around the house, change habits and behavior, and traveling.

Traveling

  Children get impatient while traveling.  They want to be there NOW. Decide on a picture or symbol to represent a length of time. Children can prepare pictures of cars or airplanes representing each half hour before the trip. The drawings can be taped to a car window, placed in a backpack, and removed as each period passes. Then children can count how much time is left.

Special Events

  The time before holidays or family visits can seem endless for children. A week before an event, cut out symbols for the holiday and line them up on a window. Every morning children can take down one object and place it in a basket. Then count how many objects are left on the window.

    Families can help children put something up to mark time instead of taking one down. As an example, for Christmas you can create a paper tree for a window and place paper ornaments on the tree until the big day.

  If people are coming for a visit make a little calendar and X off the days. You can also draw faces representing the visitors and place them on a calendar.  This is also a good time to start learning days of the week, counting, and subtracting. Children learn more quickly when information is important to them.

Developing Habits

  Families can tape a calendar and list of three age appropriate chores to the refrigerator. They can add stickers when children complete assigned family chores or accomplish a task. Children may earn a special toy or money for being successful.  Every management plan becomes old and must be replaced or tweaked. Keep your plan and expectations realistic to your children’s ages. Praise even little successes. 

Photo: Christen, Blaine. dali.jpg. June 2008. Pics4Learning. 12 Dec 2012

--> For more fall activities to help your children succeed in school and have a life time of learning see the authors’ book Learning Through the Seasons in museums, bookstores, and in E-book form atSmashwords.com.

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