Step Nine: It's About Tme

The school year has just begun, and parents, you are already stressing: "There just isn't enough time to do all the things we need to do!" Between school, sports, music lessons (or have you already dropped that one?), and church activities, you're beginning to think it can't all be accomplished.... and you're right. But instead of being anxious about how hard it is to keep everything going right now, realize you have the chance to accomplish something life changing in your children.

The beginning of the school year offers parents an excellent training opportunity, but for most families, this season is often a time of great stress. Stress or opportunity—every parent must choose between the two.

One of our most valuable commodities is time. Time is more valuable than money. We even use our money to pay people to do things for us so we can have more time. However, what do we do with that extra time? For some of us, no matter how much time we have, we don't take advantage of the opportunities time affords us.

Time is not only valuable but also limited. No one can cram more time into our daily allotment; we each get only 24 hours every day. So, obviously, those who manage their time well are the ones who get great things done. With all of life's time-filling—and time-wasting-opportunities, clearly, parents must teach their children to be good time managers. Successful time managers are successful individuals.

Unfortunately, we often miss teaching our children the lesson of time management because we misinterpret the opportunities in their lives. Parents become short-term in their thinking. Most parents believe activities and assignments are simply things to be accomplished rather than opportunities to train our children.

So determine now to make the most of this new season of the year as your children's schedules fill up with fall activities. Start by creating a calendar for each child. Elementary school students can use a month-at-a-glance calendar. From middle school on, each child needs his own day-at-a-glance calendar.

Write each due date on the calendar. Find out when school assignments, such as science projects, are due and mark them on the calendar. Then discuss how many hours it will take to finish a project. Teach the child to back up from the due date and designate one or two hour-long sessions each week on the calendar to allow sufficient time to complete the project with time for correcting any problems before the due date.

Next, put their book reports on the calendar. When are they due? Back up one month and choose a date by which the book needs to be selected. If your child fails to select the book by that date, then you do the selecting. If you pick a book from the list with enough pages, you will never have to select a book for your child again.

Once the book has been selected, have the child sit while you time him as he reads the first ten pages. If it takes 20 minutes for the child to read ten pages, you now know how many 20-minute evenings it will take for the child to finish the book. Block it off on the child's calendar. Back up from the due date and give the child a week to write the report.

Science projects, book reports, and term papers are not ends unto themselves. After all, who is going to grow up to build paper-mache volcanoes? These long-term projects are great opportunities to teach time management.

Nothing great in life is accomplished quickly; the great things take time. Moses spent 40 years wandering, leading, and writing but he never quit the journey God had for him. He was ready for this journey to greatness because God had previously trained him with a long-term science project— taking care of sheep.

As their children's calendars fill up with book reports, science projects, and regular homework assignments—plus church worship and events, sports practice and games, and various lessons parents begin to realize that their family can't do it all. That's why the Barnes household played only one sport per child a year. I love sports but my children had other areas of life that needed training.

As parents we need to be long-term thinkers and trainers. What will our children need most in life? Time management is one of the keys to successful and productive living.

Years ago I was sitting with the editor of Tyndale House Publishers, Dr. Wendell Hawley, who reads several books a day. At that point he hadn't written any books of his own, so I asked him, "Wendell, you are one of the smartest people I know, why haven't you ever written a book?" His response tells it all: "It doesn't take a lot of brains to write a book, Bob. You're a living example of that. It takes time management, and that's obviously something your parents blessed you with."

Teach your children to manage their time during this season of abundant opportunity; you will bless them when they become adults. Get out in front of the due dates of those projects and use them to teach your children the value and practice of time management.