Beat the Clock: Helping Kids be Responsible

Teaching Delayed Gratification

Doing homework often requires the mature concept of delayed gratification. We all hate some of our responsibilities, but we still need to do them. That's why Dorothy Rich of Megaskills: Building Our Children's Character and Achievement for School and Liferecommends setting a time limit on how much time kids will spend on what they hate to do as a great way to motivate them to get their responsibilities finished.

Rich recommends making up a game to beat the clock when asking the kids to pick up their toys. For example, set an egg timer for three-minutes and see how many they can put away in that time. Once the bell rings, stop cleaning, no matter if all the toys are put away or not. Move on to a fun activity the child looks forward to.

Not only does this activity teach the concept of delayed gratification but it accomplishes a task that needs to be done.

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Megaskills: Building Our Children's Character and Achievement for School and Life