The Importance Of A Routine For A Child

As a parent, you may think it’s your job to make every day thrilling with new and exciting activities for your child. But for a child’s emotional health, regular routines and predictability are better than lots of surprises. Children thrive on structure and consistency and knowing what to expect each day makes a child feel safe and secure.

Here are the reasons why you should maintain a routine for your child:

• Pratima Rai, Mother of a 4-year-old says “A daily routine is very important for any child because daily it allows him to take part in different activities. Schooling and playing are both equally important. If he does not play he gets disturbed, playful activities will help develop his mind and body. Parents should not force their children to only do homework. We can balance out playtime with work through an effective routine. It’s important for our children’s best interest to be our first priority.”

• A daily routine is very important when my child comes back from school he eats his food, after that he takes a break and watches T.V because he has already studied in school He talks to me about what he did for the day and we go over his homework before it’s time for him to sleep There’s also time for him to play and use his phone to make Tik Tok videos.” shares Priya Upadhya.

• Routines are important as they help a child develop a sense of predictability that contributes to them feeling like they have some control in their world. Even an infant needs a routine, for a child being able to wake up in the morning and having a sense of what the day is going to hold for them contributes to a child's development in many ways. It helps them develop that sense of confidence, predictability and control, all of these things are important to kids feeling good about themselves.

• Mrs. Nitesh Sharma, Principal of Vishwamanav Hanuman Saraswati Sishu Madir believes that “When you teach your child how to manage time and follow a routine every day, it automatically fall into the routine themselves. It makes them understand when is the right time for them to eat, to sleep, to play, and to do their chores and their homework.”

• Research shows that 90% of the brain development in a child happens outside of the womb and it's important for that developing brain to be exposed predictability, consistency, nurturing, structure and routine. The more a child experience predictability, the less stress they have and the better their brain can develop in a healthy way. So when we're talking about routines some examples could be that we know we eat dinner at 8'clock or that they can expect we're going to leave the house for school at a certain time or it could even be that we do our homework in a certain place in the house. It is the parents’ responsibility to establish those routines, but they also need to adapt to the situation and environment.

• “I believe that time is life, if you are able to manage time then you are able to manage life. It’s important for us to teach children from a young age how to manage time through routines for them to grow well, be disciplined and focus on areas that they are weak in.” – shares Mrs. Gita Tuli, Principal of Saraswati Bal Mandir

• Something to a keep in mind is that if you are parenting in separate households it is important to maintain the same routine. It can focus on cognitive, physical, social, emotional and even recreational aspects of child development.

 We need to relate to children growing and learning as having good cognitive skills, which can be learned from parents reading and having conversations with their children. In the same manner, social and emotional skills relate with parents talking about emotions helping kids recognize their emotions and having practice at turn-taking, problem-solving and sharing recreational life skills. The simple but repetitive activities children follow are the foundation for life long skills.

We hope this will create an effective routine curated just for your child.

Stay Tuned, Stay Relevant!