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How much time do your kids spend in school? Take a guess.
When you look at all their waking hours (because obviously they sleep at home!), how much of that awake time is spent at school?
Think about it across the whole year, and take a stab.
In percentage terms, maybe it is...
80% at school?
60% at school?
40% at school?
What do you think?
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SCROLL DOWN FOR THE SURPRISING ANSWER!!!
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DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!
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Amazingly, our children spend just 20% of their waking hours at school, across the year.
Don't believe me?
I don't blame you, I was the same. So here is the mathematical proof:
Say children sleep 8 hours a night, that's 16 hours awake or 16 x 365 = 5,840 waking hours across the year.
Now, say a school day goes from 9am - 3.30pm, or 6.5 hours in total.
There are 5 days in a week and about 36 school weeks in a year.
So 6.5 x 5 x 36 = 1,170 hours at school, across the year.
1,170 / 5,840 = 20%
!!!
Basically it's because of all those holidays, weekends and evenings.
Isn't that amazing?
All that time for our kids is NOT spent at school, and is probably spent at home with us. The parents.
Now, don't get me wrong. Schools ARE important. We felt the pain when they were closed during the Covid-19 Lockdowns.
But isn't it also empowering how much of an influence WE PARENTS can be....?
We are all our children's first ever teacher. And I would argue that we continue to be their most important "coach" in life.
Bear in mind also that when we teach or coach our kids something, it:
These are awesome fundamentals to have in any classroom. Just ask any teacher.
We don't need to be spending all that 80% of time with them (we would go mad if we did!) but surely we can find just FIVE minutes a day doing something meaningful and developmental.
We just need to find that right thing...
That's why I developed an app that is helping thousands of parents make the most a few minutes here and there to develop AND bond with their kids, all at the same time.
It's called "KidCoachApp" and even got featured by the BBC!
It works by giving parents access to HUNDREDS of quick, fun and thought-provoking questions for kids. Each has deliberately been designed to build a “21st century skill” like creativity, critical thinking, resilience, communication or leadership.
For example:
- “What are 10 things to do with a cup?” (Creativity)
- “Is there life on other planets?” (Critical Thinking)
- “When is it good to fail at something?” (Resilience)
- “How would you describe a car to an alien?”(Communication)
- “Who is a leader you admire and why?” (Leadership)
Each conversation is a digital flashcard card and has plenty of guidance and prompts to help parents take conversations deeper. They have been designed with the support of parenting and education experts (think BBC, Disney and Cambridge)!
Conversations can be slotted into your daily routine, wherever you have five minutes with the kids. Some parents do theirs on the way to school, others at the dinner table, others before bed. Personally, I do mine in the evenings when I am tired and it is tough to come up with something different to talk about or developmental to do on the fly!
I'd love for you to go give it a go. It's free to download and you can get started in seconds.
It really is a great way to use a teeny tiny bit of that 80% of time.
Try the KidCoachApp now with your kids!
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Start your free 2 week trial seconds. No payment details needed.
Kavin Wadhar is a parent of 2 kids and founder of www.KidCoach.app: guided conversations for parents to get their kids talking, thinking and feeling. Kavin left his corporate role in education publishing to pursue his passion to help parents develop in their kids the skills they need to thrive in tomorrow’s world. Working with a team of parents and education experts, Kavin has built an App for parents with hundreds of questions like those in this article, and with additional guidance / prompts to take conversations deeper. Check it out!
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