Does your calendar run your life? Good! Mine does too. In fact, I have calendar – S that determine my hourly whereabouts and tasks. Students today have to follow calendars to navigate their lives and school work, but many younger high schoolers and middle schoolers have real challenges with calendar management.
Why Can’t Kids Stick to a Calendar?
Most of us wring our hands with this question about our teens. I did some research on attention, memory, and the maturing brain and found some answers. My go to is Dr. Russell Barkely, the renowned PhD psychologist with the most up to date research. Many teens don’t have a mental calendar system up and running yet, so they need to use visual and written aids. Here are some of Dr. Barkely’s points:
- Scattered students must have an external calendar system. Their memory can’t retain a sequence of dates and commitments.
- They have to actively maintain the external calendar constantly and consistently with lots of adult supervision and intervention.
- The calendar type doesn’t matter- digital or paper.
- Often best to have both a phone calendar with alerts and an old-school agenda.
- A set time to spend 30 minutes on caldendaring daily is essential
Many kids need a responsible person to check in with them and their calendar a minimum of twice a week. A teacher, tutor, adult, or a parent works if that person oversees the calendar checks for at least 2 months; consistency is key. A responsible friend for high schools students also works well.
Digital calendars like Ical and Google Calendar work great, and the many Apps now available. The key is sticking to one for at least 6-8 weeks.
Overall, daily habit, consistency, and ease of use make for a successful calendar management system.