Studies show that the most successful kids have healthy habits. Habits are not formed in 21 days, or 30 days, or any other magic number. Often, that number is taken out of context from a study that stated that it takes at least 21 days to form a habit.
It’s the new year! It’s time to start working on these habits with my children! How about you?
Hopefully, these are things that will carry through summer with our families and our children, and will last far longer than this particular season.
Five Healthy Habits for Children to Start Working On Today:
- Get Up at the Same Time Every Day—
This is especially important now—if your children are in distance learning, when there is no homeroom for which to be tardy! It may be tempting to allow your kids to sleep in because their schedules are flexible.
However, I guarantee that learning to go to bed around the same time each night, and to wake up around the same time each morning, is one of the healthiest habits for children to get into!
I was probably the only college student in my dorm in bed by 10 and up by 6:30 daily. Maybe I was acting like an old lady, but I stayed healthy and I stayed on top of my work. This simple habit made me more successful than most students, so it’s definitely one to work on with your kids!
My children go to bed at 8:30 and wake up at 6:30. Our older two may read (or just mess around enough to irritate me) until around 9:00. This is what works best for us.
I realize that if you have to be up late for some reason, you may not be anxious to get your kids up at 6:30, but try to keep in mind that most people who are successful and productive are rising early. (So it’s something to shoot for!)
And PLEASE know that this does not apply if you are in the toddler and infant stage and are rising during the night. Girl, you get whatever sleep you are able to get!
- Set Goals—
I read once that the most successful adults learned to set goals early in their lives. These can be long-term goals or daily goals.
For younger children, it works to have them set daily or weekly goals. Tweens and teens should be thinking about longer-term goals. For example, teens should at least be thinking of what they would like to do after high school and what classes will help them reach that goal.
This is an area in which I have had great aspirations and very little follow-through. So, this is my time! (If you don’t think I’m taking these challenges right along with you, you’re wrong!)
What I would like this to look like in our family is to start setting weekly goals. Each child sets a goal that corresponds to a habit (for example, I want to make my bed every day this week); and one goal that corresponds to school (I want to get a 90% average on my geometry).
You know by now what comes next! It’s time to write out the game plan in order to reach those goals! How is your child going to accomplish that?
You might think that it’s pretty simple: If your goal is to make your bed everyday, MAKE YOUR BED EVERYDAY! But if it were that simple, your child would already be doing it! Instead, her game plan might say:
- Remind myself before I go to sleep to make my bed when I get up
- Put a post-it note on the kitchen table before I go to bed, reminding me to make my bed
- Remembering to make my bed allows me to have a piece of candy after breakfast.
Again, this is just an example. This game plan would absolutely work for my daughter and definitely would not work for my son.
This is the beauty of having them create their own game plans! (Making a game plan is also one of the most healthy habits for children, and adults to start! You can get my free goal-setting worksheet for kids here)
- Unplug!–
My children aren’t allowed to get a personal electronic device until their 13th birthdays. I know that is rare and maybe, for whatever reason, you see it as completely unreasonable and impractical. It works for us.
My sons, (the only ones who have Kindles) also do the majority of their schooling online now. (I’m still on the fence about that!) We have a screen time limit of two hours in our home on any given day.
They easily spend two hours just on their school work; so there are some days that we don’t do any screen time at all in addition to school, and there are others when we bend the rules so we can have a family movie night. It’s important to be flexible.
Maybe that’s too extreme for you and for your family. After all, we are able to do that because we never allowed it in the first place. But most of us would agree that technology is one of those things that creeps in and steals our time.
Even with our stricter rules in place, we have had to really crack down on it with my oldest son, who sometimes believes he can multi-task and tries to complete his schoolwork while having a chatbox open with his friends! He has had to find a spot at the table where I can easily walk by and check on him (this is also just a good practice for teens).
If technology has crept in and your children spend too much time in front of a screen, dial it back in a way that works for your family. Examine your schedule and see where you’re most likely to use screen time as a “filler.” Then, brainstorm some other activities you could be doing during that time.
Also, remember that children do what they see. Do you need to cut back on your own screen time? It’s a great time for setting new goals. Maybe that should be on your list.
- Get Active!—
My children have always been active in extra-curricular activities—mainly sports—so I never really worried about their levels of activity. But this year, my sons chose more academic activities during the winter. And of course, more recently, all of their spring activities were cancelled. They are getting lazy when it comes to physical activity.
My daughters work out with me every morning, but my sons would rather just sit on the couch and read. Because they aren’t normally big fans of reading, I have allowed them to do that instead; but a couple of weeks ago, on a nice day, I made them each go for a run…and it was very good! Their brains need it as much as their bodies do. So, we have tried to continue that whenever the weather permits.
This is an area that I need to work with my sons on. In fact, I may encourage them to set that as one of their goals for this week—two birds, one stone!
With so many children missing gym class and recess, it is more important than ever to make physical activity (preferably outside) a priority!
- Mealtime is for Eating—
Mealtime is a non-negotiable in our house and I think it serves my children well. When it is mealtime, we all sit down together and eat.
This was one of those things that I didn’t even realize was an issue for parents because my three older children have just always been good eaters! I never gave them a choice to be anything other than that, which I do think has a slight effect on their willingness to eat anything and everything.
I say a slight effect because our youngest daughter (who is adopted) used food and eating as a battle for control every.single.day when she first came home. And it lasted a long time! But after three years of battling, we don’t have too many issues with eating anymore.
Can I just tell you that this was a battle that I had to stay after every day and it was exhausting and frustrating, but absolutely worth it?
Many kids decide they’re not hungry at mealtime—usually, it’s that they don’t want to eat what is on their plate. You can be sympathetic to that, right? Sometimes, my husband cooks dinner and it’s not exactly what I was hoping for—because he, like me, made what sounded good to him at the time.
He has to eat whatever I make for dinner every day without being consulted, and he never says a word about it! (After four years of being chronically ill, he’s just thrilled if there’s even a PLAN for dinner!)
But I do talk to moms who have allowed mealtime to become a mediation meeting and how much of a struggle it can be. Suddenly, their kids are begging for snacks all day, not eating at mealtime, or throwing fits about it. But eating at mealtime is a life skill. If your child goes to public school and doesn’t eat his lunch because he is not hungry, he doesn’t get another chance later when he is hungry. If you have a scheduled lunch break at your job and you don’t take it because you’re “not hungry,” you don’t get another chance to eat! Make mealtime a habit, and it’s better if you’re together!
Final Thoughts on Forming Healthy Habits
Why are good habits hard to get into and the bad ones come so easily? Well, I suppose it’s just like a garden—weeds don’t need any help growing! It’s good to take an inventory sometimes though, especially when we’re with our children every day.
Are there things that we have let slide? I know there are for me because…well, like you, I’m TIRED! Oh, I hear you, friend! It’s time to get out the cultivator though and get our gardens into shape. Let’s get rid of these weeds and sow some seeds that will grow into good habits!
What about you? What are the healthy habits for children that are most important to you?
RElated: 5 Important Values to Teach Your Children
