How to Help Children Plan with Kanban

It is morning, and you are getting ready to do another session of home-schooling, or you want the children to help around the house.

Sometimes assignments need to be submitted along with all the other tasks in the house. You know you need to get the children mentally prepared as well as yourself ready for the tasks ahead. Sometimes it is not easy for the children or perhaps even for yourself to balance responsibilities especially when extra unexpected tasks come along.

Importance of planning:

Situations are more comfortable to control when they are well planned. According to Dale Carnegie, an hour of preparation can save you ten hours of doing! Differentiating the tasks according to their priorities and then completing them one by one will reduce anxiousness and confusion.

It is not less than paramount when it comes to making children habitual of something, and they didn’t use to do that before. Planning helps children to consider how to accomplish their daily tasks before they begin. For example, when a child starts a Maths assignment, they need to decide which notebook, which supplies etc.

What, how and why?

Now the question is, how help develop an interest in planning? The answer may be a visual technique from Japan called Kanban.

The Kanban technique is a popular tool used in industry, such as agile software development. It is often is used when there are several tasks to perform in a limited period. Some parents see it no less than a blessing in the use of remote learning. By implementing the Kanban technique at home will not only help in completing all the tasks, but it is also a fun way to develop children’s interest in planning.

Kanban helps the child to become more organized, multi-tasker, and focused. It also helps children in decision making. It turns the complex tasks into simpler ones. Learning Kanban planning helps the children to see the bigger picture while being assured about all the minor tasks get done.

Kanban board:

Using the Kanban board for planning to complete several tasks is an engaging step by step process. There are three regular columns on the board with a list of tasks which detailed in the following sections:

To do: In the ‘To Do’ column, a list of different tasks. Sometimes tasks are captured on sticky notes. For younger children, parents could stick them according to priority. With the older ones, they could be involved in the priority discussion. Perhaps the colour is selected by the children to develop their autonomy.

Doing: In the ‘Doing’ column, only the tasks that are in progress appear here.

Done: In the ‘Done’ column, only the tasks that are complete appear here. A good tip is to agree before the task starts what ‘Done’ actually’ means – mainly to avoid any tantrums!

Benefits of using Kanban for planning:

Kanban can give a visual picture of all tasks. Kanban can help in saving adults time, but it will also help in balancing the children’s learning with other responsibilities too. Using Kanban with children will support their sense of independence and develop their decision making.

Haley and Comet Learn to Plan with Kanban is a book by Chris Lewis, that parents can use to introduce Kanban. It is available from your favourite eBook store or in hard copy form from Amazon. #Kanban #Plan