Every parent is facing the difficult task of bringing up their children to be decent people, possessing quality characteristics and skills. To do that successfully, you must be aware of certain parenting strategies you can use to teach your toddler to be more organised. This valuable skill will help your children thrive in all aspects of life. Keep reading to learn more about these efficient strategies.
First of all, you should establish daily routines together with your children. When it comes to completing tasks, it’s essential to break them into smaller ones as it is easier for children to complete them. You should also be working on teaching time management skills and creating checklists. Kids love when you use colour coding. A great way to teach your children to be responsible is by having everyone help with the chores. You will choose the chores according to your kids’ age. And lastly, you should teach your kids to keep their rooms organised by setting up decluttering sessions a few times a year.
Establish daily routines
One of the first things you can do to help your kids learn to be more organised is to establish daily routines. Creating such a regular schedule is suitable for your children as they know what to expect and how the day will go. For example, to make things fun, you can create picture schedules when you have toddlers. On that picture schedule, you can place pictures of things in the order they are supposed to happen. The first picture can be going to the bathroom, brushing teeth, washing up, and combing hair. The next picture can be dressing up and having breakfast. After breakfast, there could be a picture of getting ready, heading to childcare, etc. This can be of great help to your toddler.
Break tasks into smaller ones
As toddlers are quite young, it is difficult for them to understand how completing large tasks functions fully. To help them, overcome this issue, it’s better to break these big tasks into smaller ones. It is much easier for toddlers that way to compete them successfully. You should help kids break projects and chores into smaller, more manageable steps. You, as their parent, need to help them do that by showing them on a practical example a few times. After that, they can copy that principle to other tasks without your help. This way of thinking is much less overwhelming for them. For example, if your kid’s chore is to clear the table, you could divide this task into scraping food off plates into the garbage, loading the dishwasher and wiping the table and counters.
Teach time management skills
An important skill you should teach your kids is time management. You should start with some simple and easy lessons, such as writing things to do on a paper or digital calendar. In that way, they can learn to estimate how much time they need for each task. Let them make wrong estimations – that is also an integral part of the learning process. Monitor their written estimation, and check with them after they have completed the task whether that estimated time was sufficient. If needed, suggest some modifications for next time. This is the best way for them to learn this vital skill they will have great use of in various aspects later on in life.
Create checklists
When you help kids understand one particular task’s steps, they can create an actionable checklist. It gives them an overview of what they need to do to complete that task successfully. A checklist would come in handy both with school work and chores. You can encourage the kids to keep the list where they’ll see it frequently, allowing them to check off steps they’ve completed as they go. They can create these lists either on paper or on their phones. What kids also like is using a dry-erase board.
Use colour coding
Colour coding is a great strategy that attracts kids’ attention. You can use this strategy both with chores and school work. For instance, you can assign different colours to diverse subjects. Kids can also use pocket folders for things that they need to sign and return to school. There are different handy organisation tools you can buy at a local store. If you have a chores board in your kitchen, you can use different colours to mark the members of your households and their assigned chores. Consider giving out some small rewards for completing chores on time. It can be in the form of a heart or star badge. After collecting a few, you can treat them with something small but significant.
Have everyone help out with chores
One of the best ways to teach your kids responsibility is to assign them chores. Even toddlers can do some simple things. It’s better to start teaching them these things on time. For example, when it comes to toddlers, you can start by having them pick up their toys and sort them in appropriate boxes. They can be in charge of their rooms. You can teach them to make their beds and clean up after themselves when they are ready. You will assign various tasks as you see fit.
Teach kids to keep their rooms organised
Toddlers don’t quite understand the concept of keeping their rooms organised and tidy. You need to teach them that. First of all, you need to show them how to be organised with your own example – your room and the other rooms in the house should be well organised. Do it together, and talk it through while doing it. Try to explain why these things matter and let them know what they can do to be more organised. They will get the gist when you do it together a few times.
Declutter together
Things tend to pile up over the year. That’s why organising decluttering sessions every once in a while is essential. You should declutter your kids’ rooms together at least a few times. Sort out the things that don’t fit, that are unnecessary, that don’t have a purpose, and that are broken and decide what to do with them. Donate toys kids don’t use anymore.
These are just some practical and efficient ways to teach your kids to be organised – start on time, and you will end up with a kid with great organizational skills!
