Thursday, July 16, 2015

Teaching Kids to Be Organized

There is something in your house that needs organizing. Maybe your junk drawer or your ink pens are a mess. For me, it was the food storage area.

I was not about to waste an opportunity to teach my kid to organize. The free labor was just bonus. I solemnly swear it!




parenting, organize, organized, projects

Seriously, though, it's so important to teach kids to organize. (And it is not necessarily easier than organizing yourself.)

Just give them simple steps.

*Unload the tupperware. ("Mom, what's tupperwear?")
*Match up the same sizes.
*Make sure each has a top and a bottom piece.
*Store like sizes together, largest first and smallest last.
*Put extras on the counter.

My 9 year old did just fine, and the step-by-step instructions are teaching him to think in an orderly way.

Next time, I'll have him make the plan and I will approve it in advance.

Of course, he earned two hours of electronic time for taking care of this hot spot for me.

3 comments:

  1. Kristy, how do you keep up with how much they've earned, when they've used it, etc.?

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  2. There is a wipe erase board on the fridge. They add the minutes earned to the total. (If they forget, they lose the time. They learned pretty quick not to forget.) They subtract minutes and set a timer when they buy time. (If they forget, they lose an hour when I catch them.) For the first couple weeks, they got reminders from me, but now they do it automatically.

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  3. Excellent idea. My son is often given the task of organizing canned food, boxed food, and dishes in my kitchen. He comes up with an idea, approaches me, and I approve or deny the task. It's fun to watch someone else to some of the work. :)

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