Importance of Family TIME

Fact is life is super BUSY for most families!!  A lot of families are trying to juggle their time between family and careerdreamstimefree_259444.family.time obligations, household responsibilities and personal needs.  Sometimes, as parents, we find it challenging to find balance in this process in order to have precious quality time left over to spend with the important people in our lives.  This lesson helps students understand the importance of quality time with little ones by using a variety of illustrations and activities.

Set

  • What does a child really need from you as a parent?  Brainstorm a list.  Hopefully TIME is on it but if not include it.
  • Show students the cartoon on the PPT.  Ask students what the difference is between quality time and quantity of time.  Quality time is time spent in giving another person one’s undivided attention in order to strengthen a relationship, especially with reference to working parents and their child or children.  Quantity of time is the amount of time spent with someone or something.
  • Do parents and children look at events and amount of time spent on them the same way?  To illustrate this, show this video titled “To a Child, Love is spelled TIME”.

Activities

  • In order to balance work and family, values must be established and taken into account.  Parents and children also need to work at making quality time a priority, but at the same time not lose sight of work and home obligations.
  • Create a list as a class of possible family values as well as examples of what illustrates quality time based on the above definition.  Ex.  Reading a book to a child at bedtime (values nighttime routines and spending time together) or eating meals together as a family without electronic devices (values family communication and eating meals together).  It’s important to note here that sometimes parents feel guilty for not spending quality time with children and try to make up for it by spending a lot of money on children in the form of “things” rather than “time”.  Discuss the potential impact of this.
  • Have student pairs randomly select a situation and write a script and appropriately role play the situation that reveals at least two problems and two possible, realistic solutions to each of them.  Possible problems may revolve around household responsibilities, transportation/personal/financial needs, and academic/social obligations.  If time permits have students create more role playing situations possibly based on personal experiences.
  • Explain to students that sometimes we make mistakes and wish we’d done things differently.    I like to have students read this poem “If I Had My Child to Raise Over Again” by Diane Loomans.
  • Finally, have students create a list of family guidelines that revolve around the PIES (physical, intellectual, emotional and social areas of development) that can provide family members with ways to qualitatively interact and function successfully.

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Photo Credit

  • Courtesy of Dreamstime images
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