Scrum For Kids

What age group of children can use Scrum For Kids?

Youths from ages 2-99 can benefit from using Scrum For Kids!  We have used it in our three year now.  Our youngest just turned 5, and she wins the blue ribbon for our most enthusiastic, joyful card mover on the family team.  Even at 2 and 3, she understood that her contribution to our family model was important, and that she was able to successfully add to the value of our family experience by doing her part.  This contagious type of intrinsic accountability is one of the many features that makes Scrum For Kids so rewarding to the children.  It reforms the family heierchy into a cohesive team that is in it, to win it together!  Our family team wants to move cards!  We want to rock the week!  We get excited to clear the board!  The board simultaneously helps even the youngest of children capture the sense of satisfaction of a job well and independently done as it showcases how those jobs are integral components to the success of the family team.  It’s a wonderful visual of how much our family needs the others’ skills and support.  As family and team members, we Standup together to, “Get ‘ir done!”

I love how it helps us to be accountable to one another.  I love how it stages our successes and models value across generations.  I love how relevant it keeps us one to the other.  It even has deepened the way my children pray for each other.  They know specifically the demands and lids of their family team and genuinely and spontaneously pray for the success of team members.  I don’t know about you, but that’s weep for joy time for this Mamma!

What does it mean to, “Move cards,” or ‘Move your cards?”

Task cards comprise the primary artifact of the Scrum Wall.  Task cards name the duty and responsible party of the weekly family board.  Task cards identify what needs to be done by the family team to clear the board.  Tasks cards cycle through a categorized process identified by the family board.  Essentially, there is a “To Do,” “In Process” and “Completed” column on each family board.  Individual team members have their own rows horizontal to the vertical column categories.  During Standup Meetings, team members identify where they are in their completion cycle by orally reporting their position in regard to each task, and moving their task cards from “To Do, ” to “In Progress,” and eventually “Completed.”  Physically moving tasks cards across the row and through the identified completion categories represent actual work product completed by each team member.

What does it mean to “Clear the board?”

Ah, my friends, this is the sweet, honey pot moment when the family team has accomplished all its designated tasks and deliverables on time.

What is a deliverable?

A deliverable is when a task card links to a concrete and time stamped, tangible product.  For example, writing a five paragraph essay about the conflicts of a play is a deliverable because in order to move the card, the team member must create and publish essay that is turned in on time.  Tasks not links to deliverables either require action or attention, but not a finished product.  Such nondeliverable cards might read:  Study for “Vocab Quiz,” or “Practice Trombone.”

Do kids resist the Scrum For Kids process?

No.  Really and unequivably, no.  I not only have used Scrum For Kids for three years in our home, but also in the service of other families as an educational consultant over the same interval.  Kids like to know what they have to do and feel great when they accomplish those jobs.  It feels good to move cards.  It validates the kids’ efforts to have the Standup Meeting forum to shine a light on their hard work, the industry of their study, how much they rocked it, uh-huh, and look at me, I moved four cards last night!  It’s rock star time, baby, complete with stage and mike.

Another thing that makes Scrum For Kids so groovy for the children is that it gives a rewarding structure for parents to connect with their school lives and responsibilities.  What better message can we as parents send our kids about their work other than, “What you do is incredibly important and relevant to our family life.  We respect the demands on your time and attention are many.  We want to dedicate this space in our home, this whole wall, as a communication center about your lives.  We want it to be a place that keeps us all connected to what you value, what you must accomplish and what you’ve done.  If there are lids, we are going to join hands and lift them.  If you need assistance, you can call on the expertise of this family team every day.  We are right here to support you as you learn how to rock it, baby, rock it and write your own music and sing your own songs.!”

Why wives/parent partners like Scrum For Kids:

Since we began daily use of Scrum For Kids, Joe has NEVER been more involved in the daily lives of our children.  He used to have this kind of hazy, amorphous sense of what was happening in their school work and extracurricular rhythms, but now he is completely invested and an essential participant.  Scrum For Kids has not only made him more their partner, but more MY partner.