How to teach your children to be Organised…

11/10/2013 10:02

Some children are naturally organised, others can be taught over time.

Have a routine in place for your children, a fixed programme for doing regular things. Routines develop good habits & being organised is a habit.

Have a roster for chores, which is age appropriate to your children & rotate the chores to avoid boredom. Play loud music & dance while doing the household chores as a family – make it fun. Try & use safe, non-toxic products but teach your children about the dangers of certain products.

Encourage your children to...

… help from a very early age, for example picking up & packing away toys after play time, make it fun, have a race to see who does it quicker, you or your child. Be excited to get your child excited & want to do it.
… pack away when they are finished with one thing before taking out another.
… keep toys sorted & to keep like items together
… come up with sorting & organising ideas for their toys/possessions.
… do tasks/chores in a certain time, this will teach your children time management skills.
… diarise as they get older & show them how useful it is.
… sort through all their toys/possession/clothes once a year & encourage them to donate them to children who are in children’s homes, hospitals or the poorer schools & crèches, whoever can put them to good use.
… make to-do lists & wish lists. Keep them motivated by rewarding them for sticking to their routines & completing tasks by giving them something off their wish list every now & again or have a star chart & when they have so many stars they can get something that they would like.
… see how much money you are saving by not paying a domestic, keep it in a jar in a safe place & let them see the money increase as time goes by & use it for a family weekend away or a family gift.

Three important organisation steps which apply to any task such as homework, art projects, chores etc are:

Getting organised – get your child to gather all supplies needed before starting a task, ask the child what they think they need to use to complete that particular task, encourage them to think about it, telling them will not help.

Staying organised – stick to the task with no distractions, set a goal if the task is too large to be completed in one sitting, no quitting, keep going until the goal is reached.

Getting it done – finishing the task, checking that he/she is happy with what they have done... then emphasise their success… & the feeling of accomplishment that is so good

Most importantly do not do everything for them… & remember to always try and make it fun…