Mindful Monday-Time
This weeks word is ‘time'.’ Recently a friend had asked: “What is the most precious gift you can give?” As I read through the comments I was taken by just one, the one that said, “time”. Think about this. During the busy season of the holidays, a precious gift may be to find the perfect sweater for your spouse, or the best toy for your child, or something baked for a friend. These are all important and treasures for sure, but, TIME! Time is present all day long, in everything we do, in everything we say and think. Time, our words take time, our actions take time, our thoughts take time. Agreed? Well, this gave me something to think about as I read the comments and I wanted to share it with you!
What is the most precious gift you can give?
TIME!
Time to spend with your spouse
Time to spend with your child
Time to spend with a friend
Time to spend with a loved one
Time to spend with grand kids
Time to spend with family
Time to spend praying
Time to spend at Church
Time to spend learning
Time to spend growing
Time to spend helping others
Time to take a walk
Time to take my time
These are some great gifts that can not be bought or replaced. They will create memories, emotions and future conversations for most of us. So, how do we teach our children about time? When we say to them: “Just take your time” or “It’s time for bed” or even “Don’t waste your time”
Just take your time, meaning: take your time, don’t be in such a hurry. Try to allow your child to enjoy the time for whatever they are working on, a project, a conversation, a painting, etc. Let them absorb the lesson and take their time in doing so.
We say often, “It’s time for…” this would be a good opportunity to show them a clock! Show them what time is, the minute hand, the hour and second hands. Make a chart if you need to to help your child learn what time it is. When you say, “It’s time for bed” have their set bedtime on the chart as a visual reminder. You can add to the chart important times of the day to help keep your child “on time”
Don’t waste time is a big one, too to teach a child. As an adult we sure know that when we spend to much time on one thing it may neglect the other people or things we need to doing. Time is balance, spend time wisely, there are so many references to time.
I feel it’s important to teach a child the value of time. We can do this by visual charts as mentioned above to help them learn the value of time. You can also incorporate a timer when using a visual clock like Behavior Bears Book on telling time, this way they get a feel of what five minutes is. Then, the next time you say, “we’re leaving in five minutes” they will have an understanding! Or, when you say something like, “you have five minutes to get ready” they will have a better understanding of what five minutes is. Time, you may think one has plenty of it, but, one never does know. So, make the best of it! Our character Behavior Bear has an interactive book on telling time available on Amazon here.
