How to Help Your Child Get Organized

As a parent you have worked hard to teach your children all of the basic life skills necessary to succeed in the world. But is there a life skill you are overlooking? Are you teaching your children to be organized? Proper organizational skills will greatly increase your child's potential to succeed in life. The best way to teach your children how to be organized is to lead by example. If you are organized your children will naturally grow accustomed to living in an organized environment and they will be more likely to become organized adults.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Lots of patience
• A chore chart
• A family calendar

1. Make sure you have an organization system in place in your home. In order for things to be put away, everything must have a designated home and those things must be in their home when they are not in use.
2. Create a designated home for all of your child's toys and begin training them from a very early age to put their toys away when they are finished playing with them.
3. Create a chore chart for your child's bedroom to give your child a visual aid of what you expect them to do each day to maintain organization. Give your child the freedom to complete each task on the list in their own way, providing them with the control children crave.
4. Maintain a family calendar in a central location where it can be seen by all family members. Allow each child to put their own personal events on the calendar and encourage them to remember their important dates by themselves.
   
   Training children to refer to and utilize a calendar is a great way to begin teaching time management and responsibility.
5. When your child is old enough to read a clock, increase their level of time management by encouraging them to be ready on time.
   
   When you have some place to go point out the time to your child by showing them the clock. Explain where the hands will be located when it is time to leave. Every 15 minutes, provide a time check to your child and tell them to look at where the hands on the clock are located.
   
   The more you do this, the more your child will begin to understand the concept of time and they will develop a clearer understanding how much can be accomplished in a set amount of time.
6. When your child become school-aged, help them learn to be responsible for their school-related materials.
   
   Create a homework schedule so your child knows when it is homework time each day. Make a homeowrk box, containing all of the supplies necessary to accomplish homework and put your child in charge of getting the box when it is time for homework and putting it away when they are done.
   
   Also, create a launch zone for any materials that must go to school each day. Give the responsibility to your child to gather all necessary items and place them in the launch zone the night before, making the morning routine much easier.
7. When your child is little older, get them their very own planner and allow them to track their school assignments and key dates independently.
8. As your child grows older, their independence and responsibilities should grow with them, shaping them into organized adults.