What for Kids?

If you are a parent or you know some kids and wonder what this is all about:

ScrumForKids is process for helping your kids manage all the stuff they have to do in a week. Between homework, school projects & household chores, it can be tough to stay on top of all that needs to be done. On any given Thursday, one of them has a spelling quiz, two of them have math home work due, and someone better clean the litter box. ScrumForKids gets you, the parents, out of the role of enforcer, chasing them about and asking if they’ve remembered to do this or that. Rather, it puts them in control of knowing exactly what’s expected of them on a daily basis, and provides just enough structure and accountability for them to own their own deliverables.

We accomplish this through a series of rituals and the use of artifacts.

The heart of Scrum is the task wall. This is a designated place in the home that holds index cards with three columns and a row for each child. The columns are labeled as “Not Started”, “In Progress”, and “Done”. Every card represents something that needs to be done during the week. Every homework assignment and household chore gets a card. It’s the kid’s job to move the card from “Not Started” on Monday to “Done” by Sunday night.

Every morning, the entire family has a Standup meeting around the task wall. This is a brief meeting we hold every morning before leaving the house. The pattern of the meeting goes like this:

  1. What did you do yesterday?
  2. What do intend to do today?
  3. What are your roadblocks to completing those goals?

Sometimes, the roadblocks are things the Parents (ScrumMasters) can remove. An example would be: a roadblock to finishing my project is getting the poster board. Our job as ScrumMaster is to provide the supplies needed some complete these goals.

Sounds a bit like the real world, eh? That’s the world we expect them to thrive in.

More posts will continue to explain the mechanics and value of the process, but this should give you an idea of what this is all about.

Joe

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