March
Is Your Family Over-Scheduled?
How to schedule your family out of the stress.
Busy schedules can be fun—keeping the pace hectic can be enjoyable for some; it can even be a sort of status symbol. But for most families, being overscheduled is simply hectic and downright stressful.
Whether it is running from one errand to the next, sometimes it seems like there isn’t enough time to say hello to one another let alone spend quality family time together or to get to the things that we need to do like calling the plumber, or homework.
But what can we do if our schedule is too busy?
Well, we can use a master schedule to help us identify our fixed and variable activities. And we can then use that schedule to ask ourselves some questions about how we are using our time and why.
Ask:
- Are we trying to do too much?
- What are my family’s priorities?
Sometimes taking a hard look at our schedules can reveal some interesting things about our day-to-lives and the choices that we make. It can also help busy families regain a sense of control over their hectic schedules.
Tip of the Week
Cut out some of the clutter that takes up your family’s time. Create a household rule for TV viewing and for computer use/sending emails—both notorious time consumers and major distractions for children who have homework!
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Too Busy for School?
Is your family overscheduled?
Sometimes it seems like time really isn’t on our side. Especially if you have the typical busy schedule of most families. From school to chores to soccer and dance practice to socializing and homework, sometimes it seems like kids’ days are so jammed packed that there isn’t even time to think.
Unfortunately, the one thing that seems to get dropped off the schedule the most often is schoolwork.
That’s why it’s important to keep track of the day-to-day responsibilities. Whether you use a master schedule or another method, getting a busy lifestyle sorted out is a surefire way to help calm the stress of a hectic daily routine.
When it seems like there just isn’t enough time, one way find some extra time in your schedule is to identify the fixed activities and the variable activities.
Fixed activities are regularly scheduled activities such as school, team sports and activities, dinner, after school jobs, and bedtimes.
Variable activities are not regularly scheduled, but occur frequently such as going to the movies, dinners out, group projects, special events.
Generally, the fixed activities will outnumber the variable activities. This is good because a fixed schedule
- Lets you see at a glance where you have room for variable activities
- Lets you better understand your time commitments
While it is good to have an active, busy life, there must be room in the schedule for school and enough time to complete homework.
A too-busy schedule often requires some re-jiggering to ensure that the important stuff such as homework—and the other stuff too—gets done.
Tip of the Week
Is your family overscheduled?
- Use a master schedule to identify your family’s fixed and variable activities.
- Get kids involved by asking them to help identify what activities are the have-to-do’s and which are the want-to-do’s.
- This process will help your family recognize where there is free time and where you are trying to do too much and is a great way to reduce the stress of a hectic schedule.
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Are First Year University Students Ill Prepared For University?
Listen to most university professors in the United States and Canada, and you’ll hear the complaint about poorly prepared first-year students.
In Canada, University of Western Ontario Professors James Cote and Anton Allahar show that students today get higher marks for unworthy performance.
“Today’s college freshmen continue to be academically disengaged…students spend less time studying and doing homework, with only 34.9 per cent of entering students reporting studying or working on assignments for six or more hours per week. This marks the lowest figure since this question was first asked in 1987. Although students are spending less time studying, their high school grades continue to soar with 44.1 per cent of freshmen report earning A averages in high school…This combination of academic disengagement and record grade inflation poses a real challenge to our higher education system, since students are entering college with less inclination to study but with higher academic expectations than ever.”
Ivory Tower Blues: A University System in Crisis. James E. Cote, Anton L. Allahar, University of Toronto Press.
Post generously provided by John Storm, Center Director of Oxford Learning St. Catharines, Ont., Canada.
Do you think first-year university students are adequately prepared? Let us know your thoughts.
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High School Students Get Organized! Using A Master Schedule
In previous posts, we’ve looked at how time is one of the biggest issues facing high school students these days.
Today, we’ll look at just one of the many ways that students can get their time management issues under wraps and get organized (which is a big step toward taking control of that next report card!) by using a master schedule.
A Master Schedule gives the big picture of daily activities and allows planning of daily activities at a glance. Master schedules can be anything from a chalkboard to a blank page.
Their purpose is to identify both fixed activities—those things that happened all the time: school, homework, chores, catching the bus, eating, jobs; as well as variable activities—those activities that don’t occur all the time but still crop up: group assignments, extra-curricular activities, parties, extra credit projects, etc.
How To Create A Master Schedule:
- Using our master schedule (pdf) fill in your daily fixed activities. This makes the free or variable time more easily recognizable.
- Fill your school and work schedule
- Highlight the free blocks of time (if any)
- Schedule your variable activities using the highlighted areas
Tip of the Week
Use a master schedule! It’s a great way to help teens to understand the “Big Picture” of their day-to-day life, responsibilities, and free time at a glance.
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