[ High School and Self-Education Board ]
Posted by Janice in NJ on 5:58 Sep 5
In Reply to: Is anyone else's new college freshman hitting a bumpy road b/c of too much playtime? ;) posted by momof7
I certainly haven't been there yet OR done that yet, but I've heard some moms indicate that they have helped their children work through this in order to help to soften the blow. They have encouraged/made/forced :-) their kids to put together a rough/monthly schedule for the semester and then bring this to the parent. All of the major assignments/exams are listed in the daily blocks on a monthly calendar. Then they sat with their child and dialogued through how to break large tasks into smaller ones. They helped their students set weekly goals instead of semester goals (that tend to be overwhelming and nebulous). Weekly goals easily transfer into daily to-do lists. THOSE always help me to feel successful at the end of the day rather than always looking at the big picture and feeling overwhelmed.
I'm probably saying stuff that you already know... but it helps me to say it as *I* attempt to train my young adults. I find that they want to do well (most of the time even though their favorite saying is, "Work pays off tomorrow. Laziness pays off NOW!"), but sometimes they really don't know how to break that into doable chunks. They know that they feel yucky about slacking off, but they need tools to manage their lives. Ignoring their work is a coping skill because they don't really know HOW to start taking bites out of that elephant. (I remember those MANY, MANY wasted weeks in college that I spend circling the elephant as panic started to set in. I WISH that I had known what to do. I was willing to work. I just REALLY didn't know how to translate the work so I could do it - how to make it doable rather than overwhelming. I settled into coping by doing nothing. Hanging out made me feel better about myself. Pathetic - I know. But still the reality of it.) Anyway - as far as any kind of real advice, my kids are still younger. I don't really have any except the kind that generates a rolling of the eyes from those who have moved from theory to actual practice. I would LOVE to hear advice about how to actually do this and how it actually works out. That's something that *I* can use even if my thoughts only generate silent forbearance on your part.
I can say that sometime it helps to get a bigger plank - sometimes I find that we need something closer to a 2 x 6 around here. :-)