With everything from school to extracurricular activities, it can be difficult to keep your kids on track with everything they need to get done in a week. While school is important, after school fun helps them learn and grow in a different way. So, how do you keep a child organized? There are a few key strategies that can help.
- Keep Things Clean – The first strategy for any form of organization is cleanliness. Help your child clean out their folders and backpack on a weekly basis, and make suggestions on how they should file any new paperwork at school. By showing them the value of cleanliness, you set the foundation for all organization to come.
- Provide Specific Space for Specific Activities – Establish a specific area of the house for your child to study in. Allow plenty of space for books and make sure you have room to sit down and help them. Find a place away from their general play area to create a distinction between work and play.
- Make Time for Both Work and Play – Just as with spacing, create separate time for work and play. Determine a specific time each day when your child will be expected to work on homework, and make yourself available as a helper during this time.
- Get Your Child Involved – Make a game out of schoolwork by rewarding your child when they’ve remembered to do their homework without being told, or let your child pick out different colored notebooks and folders for various classes to allow them to gain a sense of individuality and independence.
- Write Everything Down – Put a calendar where you and your child can see it, and then make a schedule together. Not only does this help your child with planning ahead, but it helps them visualize their schedule and identify patterns that they can more easily remember.
- Plan Ahead – At night, talk to your child about the next day. Remind them of what you’re packing them for lunch and of any extracurricular activities they have scheduled for the next day. Give them the opportunity to think about what is going to happen over the next 24 hours so that your expectations are already established.
- Make it a Habit – Get your child used to their routine. Guide them in these organizational strategies until you see them utilizing them without reminders. The goal is for your teachings to stick on their own, so let them know what you expect without being overbearing.
