Have you ever noticed how a slight change in a child’s routine may upset your child fully and may even make your child feel unsettled for an entire week? This is because all children require a routine. As such, children do not take well to sudden changes that may occur.

While we tend to set a sleep routine or an eating routine for our children, we barely ever set a learning routine for our children. Having a learning routine in place for children is equally important, especially if we want to promote independent learning.

Routines provide a sense of security for children and allows them to feel emotionally settled. With a set routine in place, children understand what to expect and are well-prepared for the activities that they are in for during a specific time.

What Should Parents and Teachers Keep in Mind When Settling on a Routine?

When establishing a routine for learning, teachers and parents must remember the routine should be restricted to time or times when certain learning endeavors take place. However, routine practice must not be so strict that the same kind of activity has to be performed at the times that have been set. Children should not start to see learning routines as being burdensome or boring and hence children require a variety of activities to keep them interested enough to want to follow their learning routine regularly.

Understanding the Benefit of Learning Routines

Learning routines are deemed important for a variety of reasons including that of:

• Bettering focus and attention spans: When children understand what is expected of them at a set time, their attention spans improve too.
• Promoting independence: Setting routines for learners from a younger age will encourage them to take ownership of their learning and as such will ensure that they start to learn independently later on.
• Minimizing anxiety: The anxiety and stress associated with what to expect is what throws children off and makes them anxious when completing a task. Children who are familiar with a particular routine experience far less anxiety than those who do not have routines set in place for them.
• Creating a culture of success. When children learn about routines from an early age, they equip themselves with the necessary skills to work within the designated times. In the long run, these are skills that children will benefit from later in life and when they grow up and start working.

How to Establish Learning Routines for Children?

1. Ensure that learning happens at a specified time. At school, a timetable ensures that certain times are blocked out for focusing on a specific learning areas. The timetable serves as a guide for learning and is a guide that teachers must follow to ensure that learners understand what learning area or subject to expect next. At home, parents must also block out some time during the day when a child can focus on completing homework tasks, engaging in guided learning, or revising what has been learnt at school. Blocking off a learning period when the child is not exhausted is important. When blocking off periods of learning, the key point is to focus on quality learning during this time as opposed to focusing on the quantity of learning that happens during this set time.
2. Use Children’s attention spans to guide the times set for learning: Like with a school timetable, the time allocated for this at home learning period is important. All learning sessions should be short and sweet. Since younger children cannot concentrate for too long, so shorter learning periods must be the main focus. When planning learning routines, some time must be devoted to each learning area.
3. Learning activities need not stay the same. Blocking off time for learning is important, but it is important to note that not all homework activities completed during this time will be the same. If you are guiding the learning at home, you also need to select a wide variety of different activities and have a variety of resources at your disposal for your child to use while learning.
4. Establish a designated learning space. Since learning spaces have been already designated at school, the home should have a set learning space where the child can go to learn during the scheduled time. These learning spaces should be well-lit, quiet, and have minimal distractions. For younger children, the learning space must not be too over stimulating or boring. A fun but minimalistic learning environment is always an option.

Different Learning Routines for Children of Different Ages

Setting a learning routine is always a good idea and it must be pursued from the time that your child starts play school. In this way, the routine will become a habit and your child will follow through with this learning routine as he or she grows older. When setting aside a specific time for learning, you must remember that the different age groups will utilize this time differently.

• Children up to 4 years old will engage in counting, singing songs, and learning using concrete objects.
• Children from 5 years old or older will start writing alphabets, focus on numerals, read stories, or engage in story telling tasks.
• Children from 6 years onwards will be busy with homework tasks and will be capable of learning more independently during this time.

Ways to Teach Children How to Stick with Routines

To enable children to feel more settled, parents must role model a culture whereby routines are adopted and emphasized. However, there are a few ways for parents to stress on the importance of establishing and maintaining routines.

• Have a morning meeting or discussion every morning with your child where you outline your priorities and their priorities for the day.
• Reinforce the concept of routine, not only for learning, but for day-to-day activities. Make sure to set a routine for at least one of the three eating times during the day. In this way, you role model the fact that parents adhere to specific routines too.
• Make mention of it when routines practices did not or could not occur. There are times when unforeseen circumstances happen and the routine cannot be adhered to. When this occurs, parents must make mention that a particular routine was not adhered to and explain why a change had to occur.
• Speak to children about the routine procedures that work or don’t work for them. If you allow children to partake in the decision making process when deciding on routines, it makes children feel part of the process and will allow them to state when certain routines are not working out. 

Encouraging Rituals and Not Just Routines

Routines are of utmost importance and this cannot be denied, however, there are times when children feel bored or feel tired because of rather stringent day-to-day routines. To spice things up and make children feel less burdened by strict routines, parents can introduce rituals into the mix.

Rituals need not happen every week, however, they can be a fun way to give children something exciting to look forward to. Introducing the idea of French fry Friday or game night every alternate week can seem like a treat for children who stick to routines that have been put in place.

Alongside rituals, offer your child some rewards too. If a child gets more revision done in a specific week, introduce the reward whereby one day in the week can be designated to digital learning using a device. Rewarding the fact that routines are keenly adhered to is a good way to motivate children to keep at routine tasks and this will take away some of the monotony of doing the same thing every day.

While rewards can happen more spontaneously, rituals too should be introduced at the same time every other week. 

Tip: Remember, parents are the best people to role model how important routine and routine practices really are and it is a good idea that parents don’t deviate from their own routines too often as well.