Most children lack organizational skills while growing up. They might forget their books somewhere, clutter their study table often and also fail to finish their home assignments on time. These are common day-to-day problems with most kids out there.
However, every parent wants his/her child to have certain organizational skills. There are a few kids who seem to possess those skills right from the beginning, but their number is very less.
Organizational skills are developed over a period of time. With proper guidance from parents, children can grow up to be neat and organized.
Here is our list of the ways in which you can develop your child’s organizational skills!
1. Maintaining checklists and to-do lists
Introduce the idea of checklists to your child. Ask your child to jot down all of their important tasks on the checklists and the to-do lists. This would help them to complete all of their tasks on time and would also give them a sense of accomplishment after finishing those tasks. They can maintain these checklists either on a notepad or on a mobile app or even on a dry-erase board.
2. Following household routines
Set a regular household routine for your child to follow. Have a fixed bed-time, study-time, play-time, TV-time and dinner-time for them. Make sure that they follow this routine on an everyday basis. This would ensure that they have a regular pattern of going through their day and it would play a big role in getting them organized. Also, habits developed early stay with you throughout your life. Thus, this is an organizational skill that would always be useful for them, even when they grow old.
3. Dividing and organizing schoolwork into parts
Dividing schoolwork into smaller parts is extremely necessary for children, otherwise, it all might seem a bit too overwhelming for them and they would not even want to start. Breaking down tasks into one step at a time would make those far easier and manageable for them. One can have separate folders for separate assignments and can also use colour-coding for different subjects. Also, find some time to help your child in organizing their school paperwork and encourage them to use binders to maintain their worksheets.
4. Preparing ahead of time
Instill the habit of preparing in advance in your child. Preparing ahead of time has a number of advantages. Those who always wait for the last moment to finish their work end up panicking and always forget some important task in a hurry. What you can do is make your child prepare their school bags, not in the morning, but on the previous night, so that they are more careful and organized in putting the essentials in their bags. They can also iron and lay out their uniform for the next morning in advance. These small little things would go a long way in getting them all set for the future.
5. Organizing the workspace
A kid must have an organized workspace, in order to work without any distractions. The basic stationery items, such as pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners should be kept on the table. Your child must learn to put them in a container every time his /her work gets over. In this way, he or she would never lose his/her belongings and would also not have to look for them all over the room every single time. In order to make the workspace more attractive, you can let your child hang a bulletin board and also some inspirational posters in there.
6. Cleaning up on a weekly or fortnight basis
Cleaning up on a regular basis is essential for decluttering the room. A messy room can be a sort of annoyance for anyone. Show your kids how to clean and sort out their stuff and encourage them to do it by themselves as well. They need to understand why cleaning is an absolute necessity for everyone. Tell them that a dirty and messy room can lead to diseases, irritation and disorganization. This would encourage them to keep their rooms neat and tidy.
7. Doing household chores that require sorting out
Parents should let their children take part in doing household chores from a very young age. The kids should know that every person living in the house has certain duties to fulfill. Doing household chores makes them responsible and active. Also, certain household chores such as grocery shopping, cleaning the closet, sorting out old photographs let them develop their organizational skills as well.
Conclusion
Organizational skills should be developed in children from a very young age so that by the time they grow up, being organized becomes second nature to them. The aforementioned points are some of the ways in which you can develop those skills in your child. We hope that you will find this list useful and it would help you in making your kid organized and more prepared for the future.
