[blparent] Request for ideas to help young kids to get ready for school on time

[Melissa Ann Riccobono]

In general, time is a hard concept for young children to understand. Seconds
can often feel like minutes, and minutes like portions of hours--or perhaps
whole hours depending on what is happening around them. I think the idea of
using your iPhone timer is a good one. There are also watches and clocks out
there which have the option of setting more than one alarm. This could be
hhelpful. You could set an alarm to go off when it's time to wake up, then
another a few minutes later that could mean the child should be dressed, and
another when he or she should be sitting down for breakfast. You could play
beat the clock with an idea like this. We actually have a clock which chimes
every 15 minutes between the hours of 6 AM and 10:45 pM. This is nice at
times because I can say something like, "the next time the clock dings, we
need to start getting ready for bed.) This clock is in our living room, so
it's not as useful when we are all upstairs--although if we are quiet enough
we can hear it from up there.
Glad the music has been helpful. I think this works better than traditional
timers for young kids because they have a constant reminder of the passage
of time. The song is playing from beginning to end, and they can start to
know if the song has been playing for a long time or a short time, and also
when it is about to end. Timers are great in a lot of cases, but I think
it's easy for a kid to know the timer is set, then forget about it
completely until it goes off because they get distracted. Of course, they
can also ignore the song because of distraction... Nothing is perfect!
Melissa

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jennifer
Bose via blparent
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2015 12:49 PM
To: Blind Parents Mailing List
Cc: Jennifer Bose
Subject: Re: [blparent] Request for ideas to help young kids to get ready
for school on time

Hi, listers.

This list continues to be great for the most part. Thanks, JoElizabeth and
Melissa, for your wonderful ideas to help kids get ready on time.
Yes, I'm finding that waking up earlier so we can allow a little time to be
playful rather than hurried is a good strategy. Music does seem to help,
too. I'm wondering, though, if there's a good tool that any of you on the
list has found that works well for everyone, maybe a particularly accessible
clock or timer or something else that can prompt kids to notice the passage
of time. Maybe I should just use my iPhone timer. Any other ideas ...

Thanks so much.

Jen

PS: JoElizabeth, congratulations on your novel.

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