Dad Smarter Not Harder

How to use planning to teach kids adaptability and delayed gratification

Episode Summary

I do a deep dive about how I use planning (and stick figures) to teach Juniper adaptability, delayed gratification, and problem solving.

Episode Notes

I’m so excited for this episode today. It’s completely different from the last two episodes that focused on managing meltdowns (and trust me, I could probably make 100 episodes just on meltdowns). Today, we explore how to use planning to build adaptability in kids. It’s going to be a good one because I have a lot of examples that you can learn from and pick and choose the technique that will best fit your family.

Here are examples of plans I've made with Juniper: Twitter thread with pictures of our plans.

Why learning to plan is important for kids

1. Planning forces you to think about the future, teaching the child the concept of today, tomorrow, next week, and the future
2. Planning forces you to delay gratification, because you will have a reward later, and you know it, but you have to wait for it
3. Planning forces you to develop sequential thinking: first this will happen, then this, and then this
4. Planning helps you to cope with change: by planning ahead, you’re forced to really think about change, expect the change, and prepare for change
5. Planning forces you to problem solve: if I want to accomplish Z, then I need to do X and Y first

I want your feedback, questions, anything really. I just want to talk to you and the best way to do it is by shooting me a tweet at @junloayza.

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