Plan a proper routine for your child to help develop their focus.

Children’s fear the unknown, may it be a person, new food, new town or any other major change in their life. Children need routine because it gives them a sense of security and help them develop self-discipline; it provides framework and order in children’s lives. Unlike adults children feel secure when their lives are predictable. If children know what to expect or what’s coming next helps them become more confident. When children feel safe, they learn to trust and with trust they can relax and explore their world.

If you plan a proper routine for your child that gives them ample time to play, relax, study or just do whatever they want, they will start focusing on the task beforehand. Routines can be a way of teaching your children healthy habits, like brushing their teeth, getting some exercise, or washing their hands before meal. Routines make you spend time as family which strengthen relationships between parents and children.

Basic Routines for Children

Mealtime:

Having meals at the same time daily is an important part of setting a routine for children. For making the mealtime special and interesting for children is to have the meals together as a family. Ask children about their day’s experience and support them for whatever they’re feeling. Introduce other parts of the routine by giving them responsibility of clearing the table, setting up the plates etc.

Bedtime:

Mealtime and bed time are two such part of a routine structure, that if these two are regular and scheduled properly, everything else just falls into place automatically. Just adjust all the other activities in between mealtimes and bedtime like brushing teeth, bathing, getting dressed, going school, homework, playtime, or watering the plants.

Make your children sleep at the same time regularly; it is the foundation of any routine. It helps them maintain their body clock well, for example, bedtime routines help children’s bodies ‘know’ when it’s time to sleep. Sleeping and waking up daily at the same time helps the digestion too. Start a ritual before bedtime as a part of bedtime routine, it soothes the children and get them ready to sleep. Find what works best for your children be it a cuddling or tickling them to bed, bathing or brushing teeth, bedtime storytelling, playing puzzles, listening to music etc. After the pre bed routine, make environment sleep friendly by dimming the lights and maintaining the right temperature.

Give ample time to everything in routine structure:

Children need regular schedule of meal, sleep, playtime, bedtime stories etc. But in many cases children don’t have much time to complete an activity with satisfaction and they have to switch between tasks. In such case, children find it tough to concentrate on the task at hand. Children are full of energy and are always looking for new things.

When your child believe that there is a lot of time, they feel relaxed and enter into a free play mode and are completely present at that time. They ignore all distractions and concentrate freely. When they are in deep in something do not ask them to leave it and start something else. If you want them to switch to another, give a few minutes warning time.

For example, if a child is in between a Puzzle and you want your child to study, give him/her a five-minute warning.

Or

When it is time to leave the park, giving them advanced notice will make it easier for you. Your child will be mentally prepared and ready to refocus on the new task faster.

Don’t just drag your children from an activity to another. Try to give a pause between two activities to let them recover from the previous one.

Be flexible:

Parents should be consistent about the routine but not too strict about it. Routines are important but be ready for sudden surprises. Many things can come up; you may have work outside or guests coming over. Don’t over react or get frustrated when this happen. Inform children before if their routine is going to be disturbed a little bit, assure them it will soon return to normal.

Modelling:

Follow a routine yourself; it instills good planning and organizational skills into children. If you don’t follow routine you can never set a consistent routine for your children.

Routine provide a foundation for future success,  so sit down with your spouse right now to discuss the upcoming week’s schedule.