Maintaining Balance

A guide to the ‘good life’ for second graders!

29 April 2011

Objectives

• Share information on the elements of a balanced life, and

• Discuss what the appropriate balance is for a second grader.

Task 1Complete the weekly schedule

for your second grader, outlining time spent:

• working – school, homework, tutoring, etc.• playing / relaxing• self-management• sleep• other.

Sleep

• children aged 3-10 years old need between 10 and 12 hours of sleep a night, and this data is backed up by other authorities.

• Children who are regularly ‘sleep deprived’ will potentially exhibit a range of difficult behaviors.

SleepRecent research in Israel has shown

that “the performance gap caused by an hour’s difference in sleep was bigger than the normal gap between a fourth-grader and a sixth-grader. Which is another way of saying that a slightly sleepy sixth-grader will perform in class like a mere fourth-grader. A loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to [the loss of] two years of cognitive maturation and development.”

SleepSo, how are you doing with your

child’s sleep hours on that schedule?

Why not share with a neighbour any issues that arise from this? Is your child getting enough sleep? How might you make sure they do?

Sleep rules1. Your child has to have a set

bedtime routine, a pattern of events that he or she goes through before sleeping every night.

2. Make sure that once in their bedroom your child has no distractions

Play / RelaxationPlay is so important to optimal

child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child.

Play / Relaxation “The overriding premise is that play

(or some available free time in the case of older children and adolescents) is essential to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth.”

Kenneth Ginsburg,The Importance of Play in Promoting

Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds

Play / Relaxation“We can be certain that in some

families, the protective influences of both play and high-quality family time are negatively affected by the current trends toward highly scheduling children.”

“highly scheduling”

Check those schedules again – how much ‘wiggle room’ or slack is there, how much free time?

Play / Relaxation“The challenge for society, schools,

and parents is to strike the balance that allows all children to reach their potential without pushing them beyond their personal comfort limits and while allowing them personal free play- time.”

WorkWhat does it look like for our

kids?

• school working hours• tutoring• homework

• therapies

School hoursToo long, too short or just about

right?

Discuss and share out.

Our contact time is about 5-10 minutes/day shorter than many schools working 8:00-3:30. We have shorter breaks.

Tutoring“After a full day at work what the

kids most need is overtime, i.e. more work.”

Discuss.

Is tutoring cultural, i.e. a fear of what might happen if we don’t have tutors for our kids?

HomeworkWhat do you think the research

tells us about homework in second grade?

“A meta-analysis encompassing research involving thousands of students showed little correlation between homework and test scores in elementary school.”

RecapSo far we’ve looked at:• Work vs. play• Sleep vs. awake

Also want to take a quick look at:•Independent vs. dependent•Risk-taking vs. protected•Online vs. offline

Independent vs. dependent

To what extent is your child self-managing?

Risk-taking vs. protectedTo what extent is your child

encouraged to explore beyond their comfort zone, with some ‘exposure’ to risk?

Let them climb trees!

Take them camping, waterskiing, horse riding, etc.

Online vs. offline

It’s a new reality but:• What time is involved?• What are they doing?• How are parents engaged in

their children’s online lives?

Success vs. failure

Seems odd to want our kids to fail but:

• We learn a lot from failure (mistakes).

• We develop resilience as we deal with the disappointment.

So, let your kids fail occasionally!