Teaching Children Organization
Teaching your children organizational skills has two major benefits. Giving your children the skills, they need to organize and manage their own lives is an important life lesson that they will take with them into adulthood. The second perk is how useful it will be for you when they learn to clean up after themselves. It’s a win-win situation all around.
Here are tips for teaching your children organizational skills:
Make It Fun
First and foremost, find a way to make clean up fun. Make it a game to pick up toys after you are finished playing. Clean up can be a race to see who puts away the most toys, or it can be a sort of matching game where your child matches up like toys with like in assorted bins.
Positive Reinforcement
Make sure to give plenty of positive reinforcement when your children clean up after themselves or put something where it belongs. Make a big deal out of how well they did. Children inherently want your approval and showing how happy you are when they’ve done something right is a sure way to get them to repeat the behavior.
Try a reward system, such as a chart to track their “chores” where they can earn a sticker or gold star whenever they do a good job.
Provide Storage Solutions
Make a place for everything and show your children where everything goes. They should have a specific place for their toys, stuffed animals, and clothes.
Great storage solutions for toys are clear storage bins. Children can clearly see through the bins to see where to put blocks, toys, and dolls separately. When they are ready to play with certain items, they can immediately go to the right bin instead of digging through a big toy box, resulting in toys thrown everywhere.
Be Consistent
Your children will emulate your behavior. If you expect them to be organized and pick up after themselves, you must do the same. Try to consistently pick up after yourself and help your child to do the same thing.
Consistency is the key to teaching a child any behavior. The more you repeat the tasks, the easier it will be for them to pick up and repeat themselves.
Be Patient
While children are do have a great capacity for learning and will do things to seek your approval, learning organizational skills will not happen overnight. You must be patient and give your child space and time to learn.
Even after they learn the behavior, there might be good days and bad days. Be firm and consistent, but also be patient. Reinforce the good behavior and try not to lose your patience and give up.
Teaching children organization can be a challenging, but ultimately rewarding experience. You will be giving your children skills not only to help you manage but to grow into adulthood. Use these tips to teach your children to organize their spaces, and you are teaching them life management skills as well.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
