I have a child that takes a lot of prodding to get going in the morning. I have to remind him constantly what it is he is supposed to be doing next and checking to see if what he did do has been finished.
An amazing thing happend when we bought him an alarm clock. He set it to wake up in the morning, jumped out of bed when it went off, completed all of his chores, and moved on to his schoolwork. He's had his alarm clock for several years now and whenever we decide to wake up whenever we feel like it he is slow and plodding. This can be hard to fathom for a girl like me who just gets up and does what needs to be done until it's all done, then I rest.
Time motivates my son. He needs a schedule, not just for his morning routine but for his whole day. He likes to know that he has accomplished something by a certain predetermined time. Once done he is very pleased with himself! I guess I better make it clear, you only need the alarm to start the day off, like a starting pistol. The rest of the day my son has little blocks of time for each activity. He needs to know that this is when we eat, this is when he does school, and then this is when we take a break and so on. He lives by little blocks of time and I live by big chunks of time. It can be done in the same household.
So if you have a child that seems to have his internal clock set to "Hawaiian time" (My son is Hawaiian) then setting an outer clock and schedule just might do the trick.
Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB
