Full disclosure: It is 2:30pm on Friday, and I’m just now sitting down to write this blog that is due to Carmen, our Communications Director, at the close of the day. As a procrastinator, the adrenaline is all too familiar. Along with my procrastinating peers, I can argue that I do my best work under pressure. I can also argue that the palpable stress has turned my hair gray (beneath the stylist’s refurbishment) and taken years off my life. I can measure this in the time spent agonizing about the writing I’ve needed to do, rather than actually writing.

Some of us have an appetite for high excitement (think roller coasters), which can also be defined as stress. When it comes to accomplishing tasks, like writing assignments, adrenaline can be a powerful focusing agent. However, as our mindfulness practice informs us, our bodies, including our thinking brains, need rest and calm, not only to perform best in times of high pressure, but to avoid them in the first place.

For me – yes, there’s hope! – breaking down the task of writing, as well as scheduling these steps into my planning time has helped me meet deadlines. In the same way, children need to develop the skills of planning and organization in order to best access, and then apply, their knowledge. Therefore, these skills, a.k.a. executive functioning skills, are an essential foundation to the learning and acquisition of academic “knowledge”.

For children, a sense of calm, order, and security begins with establishing routines. Children are able to navigate the day and week by relying on predictable landmarks. The regularity of a child’s bedtime routine, for example, brings comfort to and a path through the end-of-the-day fatigue. As families and teachers, we scaffold routines for children until they internalize them.

For this reason, teachers give a great deal of attention to establishing solid routines at the beginning of each year. This includes the organization of personal belongings, supplies, daily systems, and the weekly schedule. It also includes greetings, morning meetings, and peace table discussions to develop procedures in support of  communication.

The routine that bridges home and school is established early as well. First and second graders have a Transportation Folder as an organizational tool to carry communication between their teachers and parents. In third grade, students transition into a more regular homework routine after winter break. Children may need support in planning the small habits of this procedure (i.e. before dinner, in a quiet and uncluttered space, materials ready.) The final step, of course, is to put the completed homework in the same safe place to ensure the dog doesn’t eat it.

For more information about TBS philosophy on the kind of homework your child might receive, please see Our Approach to Homework. Whether your child has been asked to practice his early-reader books, or edit her essay on Westward Expansion, remember that the content is your child’s homework… and scaffolding the homework routine for your child is your homework.    

Did I make my deadline?… There’s always room for growth.

Bliss Tobin, Elementary Division Head