Teach Your Child to Be Organized
Have you seen those parenting cartoons by Brian Gordon? He tells some of the funniest parenting stories with his cartoon duck family. He touches on every subject and every thorn in a parent’s side, including the lack of organization that children are innately born with. It’s painful sometimes, we know. But the good news is you can help your child to be more organized and get a handle of their belongings.
The best way to teach your child to be organized is to be organized yourself. Let your child see you being organized and get them using the tools of the trade along with you! Try some of these to help your kids get their act together…and don’t forget to check out Brian’s cartoons for more fun takes on parenting mishaps and adventures!
Start with the toy pile.
Use containers like these to color coordinate certain toys and keep everything in one place. This makes cleaning up easier for children too because they can basically throw the toys at this bin and they’ll land somewhere!
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Break tasks into smaller chunks.
If making the bed is too overwhelming for your child, ask them to start by taking the blankets off the bed, getting clean blankets, putting one blanket on, and then another. Step by step can really help a child to see the bigger picture without getting overwhelmed by it.
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Use checklists.
This seems obvious but the trick is to put the checklist somewhere your child will see it everyday. The refrigerator becomes cluttered, their room is a mess, and their backpack could be growing small animals… you are not quite sure. The best place for a checklist?The bathroom mirror. Kids are in the bathroom multiple times during the day. And it is so weird looking, they can’t miss it.
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Give them a place to do homework.
The kitchen table is great for dinner. And that’s about it. Make space, however small, for your child to do their homework. Put a clock, pencils, paper, erasers, and a snack there for your kids and they’ll have no problem finding their way to their homework station to get the job done.
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Learn to think ahead.
Talk about what is coming up this week and what needs to be done. Walk your child through the process of marking things on the calendar and getting into the habit of checking it regularly. Ask your child open questions like, “what do you need for school tomorrow?” This will put the responsibility on them to start thinking about the things that need to happen now so that they can be successful later.
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Organization doesn’t have to be painful: it is designed to help everyone succeed. Start small and encourage your child to try to organize things in a way that they like. Color coding is a child’s best friend. Give it a try!