What Are The Benefits Of Routines For Children?

It is important that children develop good habits in order for them to build character. Although routines can be seen as restrictive, they are necessary for young children. But what are the benefits of routines for children? Routines teach them several valuable lessons. In today’s article, we explain some of the valuable lessons children can learn from routines.

Routines are created for the purpose of teaching children appropriate behavior and good habits. This is an effective way to teach good behavior, as routines are difficult to change once they are established. For example, children can learn to always brush their hair before going out, or to brush their teeth morning and evening.

Good habits do not always occur naturally, many must first establish the habits through routines. Routines can also give children healthy guidelines to follow from a young age. With the help of routines, they can learn valuable values, such as discipline and responsibility, which they can benefit from throughout their lives.

When to start creating routines for children?

You should not wait too long to start developing routines for your children. You can start almost from the moment they are born. It is not uncommon for children to start learning their first routines before the age of one. If you let children go for too long without good routines, they can easily pick up bad habits that are then difficult to change.

Creating a meal schedule, and keeping a set time for both bath and bedtime, from a young age helps children adjust to new routines as they get older and as more activities are added to their calendars. The benefits of early routines for children include that they have an easier time adapting to new routines when they start preschool, and then again when they start school and also start participating in leisure activities outside of school.

From a young age, children copy what they see in others, whether it is good or bad behavior. This is because at first they do not have the ability to distinguish right from wrong. This is why it is best to teach them habits and routines by setting a good example with your own daily activities.

The importance and benefits of habits and routines for children

Establishing schedules and respecting routines provides many benefits for children, including:

• Favors the development of autonomy
• Creates security and stability
• Provides a quiet environment
• Teach them how to stay clean and organized
• Reduces uncertainty and anxiety because the activities are predictable

The first thing we should establish with our children is when we should eat, swim and sleep. It is advisable to stick to these times and respect the family’s daily schedule. As the children then grow, you will need to add new activities to the schedule, such as time for study and play, without disturbing the routine that has already been established.

Habits, routines and their relationship to learning

Habits are in themselves a form of learning that establishes self-regulatory behavior and discipline. For example, they help children adapt to school. In the classroom, especially in preschool, one of the most important learning goals is to teach children to follow routines.

In the same way, the creation of routines and established schedules favors the understanding of time sequences and space, while helping children to focus on specific tasks. They also help children learn to plan and work hard to achieve certain goals and objectives every day. This helps them to effectively learn to start and end an activity, rather than delaying or just completing tasks in half.

Benefits of routines for children

All members of the family should do their part to set a good example. When good habits are part of the daily routine, they can help children learn to:

• Predict what will happen and deal with anxiety.
• Easily adapt to different situations.
• Get organized by learning a pace that will serve them as adults.
• Appreciate that there are standards and boundaries that they must respect.

To establish effective routines for children, you need to be a patient role model. It requires the whole family to work as a team, otherwise your children may start to adopt bad habits.

Your children have endless opportunities and talents to explore and develop. The more good habits they adopt, the better their chances of succeeding in whatever they want to achieve in the future.