Tips for spending more time with your kids

With busy work and school schedules, it can often be hard to find quality time to spend with one's kids. These  tips are designed to help guide  parents seeking to spend more time with their kids.

• Find an activity that you can do regularly with your children. Schedule, for example, a weekly or bi-weekly one-on-one game of basketball, or set the goal of finishing a difficult jigsaw puzzle together.
• Sometimes being spontaneous can also be fun. Make the most of good weather to enjoy an impromptu picnic, or wrap up warm and go skating at a nearby rink.
• Keep a mental list of family-friendly activities that you can do with your children, so you can make the most of a free afternoon whenever one crops up.

• Check in with your children after school to see if they need any help with their homework assignments. Offer to proofread essays or double-check assignments.
• Making yourself available to help with school work will not only make your children feel more supported and enable them to be more successful academically, but it is also an easy way to spend quality time together.

• Try to limit the amount of work that you bring home. That means also limiting the amount of time that you spend checking and responding to emails.
• If you must finish work-related assignments during the weekend, compartmentalize them as much as possible. For example, dedicate a specific block of time to finishing work-related tasks, so that you can dedicate the rest of your weekend to your children.

• Spend more time with your children by incorporating them into your daily routine. If you are cooking dinner, organizing a room, or fixing a broken cabinet, ask your children to help you with the task.
• Not only are you teaching your children practical skills, but also children are often excited to help.

• If you have more than one child, set aside specific times for interacting one-on-one with each of them. This interaction can be as simple as going out for ice cream.
• Creating time for one-on-one interactions gives each child an opportunity to open up to you about anything that is causing stress or worry.