How to Teach Kids Organization Skills
Your daughter comes thumping into the kitchen to tell you she forgot her math book at school. Your son can't find his favorite toy and wants you to help. None of your students can find a pencil. The list goes on and on, but the bottom line remains the same--kids aren't always the most organized of creatures. Teachers and parents know it, but we sometimes forget that, in order to curb the disorganization, we need to teach kids organization skills.
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Things You'll Need
- large calendar
- daily planner
- drawers, shelves or buckets for toys
- quiet homework area
- assignment book
Instructions
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Teach Organization at Home
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Begin organizing your home when your children are young. Though they may not yet recognize what's going on around them as systematic, it's much easier to teach organization skills early on than it is to try to instill them once your kids have developed disorganized habits.
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Create a place for everything. As the old saying goes "a place for everything and everything in its place." Help toddlers and preschoolers sort their toys into drawers, buckets or shelves, putting things together in logical groupings. Let them know that you expect the toys to be returned when they're not being played with, and assist in this process until it becomes automatic.
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Model the behavior you expect. Kids can be organized if they live in an atmosphere of chaos. So, clear the old mail and school notices off the kitchen counters, put away the laundry and grab yourself a daily planner.
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Use a large calendar to keep track of appointments and activity schedules. Encourage the whole family to write something on the calendar as it comes up and remember to periodically sync your daily planner with the calendar. It's likely that you'll make appointments while you're out--those will need to be transferred to the family calendar.
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Keep a running "Things We Need" list. You can either use a piece of paper tacked to a bulletin board or the refrigerator or another white board. Asking people to write down foods or supplies as they run out will help you stay organized for shopping trips.
Teach Organization for School
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Buy your child an assignment book or planner if the school doesn't already provide one. Let her know that you expect her to write down her homework assignments as they are given and, at the end of the day, she should check to make sure she has all the necessary materials before she leaves school.
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Establish a homework routine. Whether it's asking your kids to do their homework right after school or setting aside a specific time in the evening, having a time (and place) for homework can help to organize kids. Help your child to set up a quiet space and teach him to take out all the materials he needs to complete an assignment before he begins.
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Teach the art of planning ahead. Many children have long-term assignments for school, but few of them begin until right before the assignment is due. Assist your children in breaking the assignment into smaller components that can be completed over the course of the assigned amount of time. Teach her how to create a timeline indicating when each piece will be completed.
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Allow your child some disorganization. In fact, expect it to be so! Kids can't be organized all the time and really shouldn't be. If his disorganization gets in the way of something he enjoys or causes him to receive a poor grade, then he will know to be more organized next time.
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Tips & Warnings
The book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens" and its accompanying website is a great resource for adolescents who are trying to become more organized (see Resources below).
