Helping Children Adjust to Fall and Spring Time Changes

“Don’t forget to set your clocks back/forward this weekend!” We hear this in spring and fall here in the United States. Personally, I think life would be much simpler if we didn’t have to think about moving the clocks twice a year – much less which way.  (Just remember “Spring forward, and Fall back.”)  With 9 children ranging teens to preschoolers, I’ve come up with a few ways to make the transition easier for our family.

I’ll have to say the most pleasant time change, of course, is the one in the fall where we have to move our clocks back and we “gain an extra hour”.  I enjoy feeling “lazy” – while feeling diligent (does that make sense?) – as I let the routines and schedule drift 1/2 hour at first, then 1 hour later than usual.  I try to start this about 3 weeks prior to the time change.  Often it begins to happen, ahem, “naturally” an entire month ahead of time, and then I remember, “Oh, yeah!  Time change is coming up…”  For meals, we usually eat 1/2 hour later than usual, since another 1/2 hour when the time change occurs is not too difficult to implement.

Where this really pays off is in the spring, when you’ll have to move the clocks forward.  It requires more diligence, but is worth it, especially with young children.  Usually I will try to remember to start a month ahead of time with moving the entire routine 1/2 hour earlier, and keep it that way for 2 weeks.  Then I move it another 1/2 hour earlier for the last two weeks before moving clocks forward.

Of course, while you are preparing for the transition, all regularly scheduled outside activities have to still occur at their proper times!

Since the time change is supposed to occur at 2:00 in the morning on Sundays, we set our clocks back/forward on Saturday morning and work that whole day on the new schedule.  If we’ve started ahead of time, it’s actually easy!

Helping children (and the whole family) adjust to time changes ahead of time works for me!