Help Your Child Learn to Organize and Prioritize with a Chore Chart
It can be very frustrating to ask your child over and over again to complete their chores without them ever getting done. Sometimes it’s the result of a child not knowing how to organize and prioritize their time. Help your child develop these important skills by implementing a chore chart.
Chores might include taking out the garbage, doing the dishes, cleaning their room, yard work or putting laundry in the laundry room. After your child completes each chore, they can put a check mark on the chore chart. At the end of each week, it’s very inspiring for both parent and child to look at the chore chart and easily see that each designated job was completed.
Just like our to do lists, your child will find great satisfaction in being able to check off each chore as it’s completed and take pride knowing they accomplished a set task or list of tasks. Once the child is more adept at completing each task and learns to recognize which ones should be completed first, additional ones can be added to the list.
Once you’ve sat down with your child and discussed and designed a chore chart, it’s time to discuss the rewards for accomplishing each task listed. Perhaps at your home you decide you will give a set sum for each task accomplished. If you should decide to grant your child some sort of monetary allowance, make sure it’s age appropriate and granted on a regular basis.
A good rule of thumb is 50 cents per year of age. However, be firm about the allowance being an all or nothing reward. No allowance is given if the items on the list are only partially completed or if they haven’t been completed in a quality fashion. Teach your child early to strive to do it right the first time, and learn to save time in the process.
By helping your child to develop a sense of organization early on, you’ll equip them with an important skill that will help them succeed later in life.
As you begin the process of organizing your household, you may ask yourself what the best way is to motivate your family members to become and stay actively involved in the process. Each family member is unique and so is their method for organizing and prioritizing. But if you approach it from a coaching standpoint, it is possible to motivate your family to get on the organizational bandwagon.
First of all, remember that your family will get involved in the process for their own reasons, not necessarily just to please you. Help each family member pinpoint their own motivations for wanting to get organized.
Each of us has a strong suit when it comes to being organized. Find that about each family member and emphasize it. Take the opportunity to share your organizational strengths and tips, and ask them to do the same. Offer praise, not criticism.
Organizing isn’t about getting rid of things at all. It is about identifying what’s important to you and giving those things a reliable, consistent home. Don’t try to force your family member to get rid of their things, but to prioritize which things holds the most importance and to focus their organizational goals around that.
Finally, being organized is about being responsible. If your child or family member has worked hard to get organized and stay organized, recognize this feat and reward it. Perhaps you can come up with a family reward such as a new croquet set for the backyard that everyone can play, or purchasing three or four new board games the family can play together. And remember, the best teacher for your family is you, so lead by example. Maintain your personal organization systems and consistently strive to improve and find new ways to keep on top of the clutter so chaos doesn’t overrun your life. They’ll learn by your example.
Organization Tips for Households with Large Families
Everyone in the family could really contribute to a lot of clutter at home. You might notice that when you were still living alone, there was already too much clutter at home. It is not surprising that when you married and started having a growing family, your house instantly turns into a grand place full of clutters and things scattered everywhere. You need to sort out things. Check out the following organization tips to help make your home organized and systematic at the same time.
You could begin the initiative by organizing all your clothes and shoes. Of course, each member of the family could have multiple numbers of clothes and shoes. Most are keeping items even if unused for the longest time. It would be best if you would designate a storage cabinet where all shoes of family members would be stored. It would not be likely if any shoes would be left at the door entrance. When shoes are scattered at the floor, anyone could easily kick them off. When that happens, it could be hard to find the missing match. Finding that match could also aggravate or worsen the cluttering problem. Clothes that are unused for the longest time should already be taken out of the house. Perhaps, you should donate them to charities.
Children of course bring home lots of school papers and artworks. Such papers could get mixed with your daily mail. In a matter of days, the papers could pile up and would look like a total mess. Resolve this problem through going through your children’s paper works on a daily basis. Keep those that need to be kept and throw away those that could be instantly discarded. It would help if you would put a child’s paper works into a separate bin or plastic bag so it would not mix up with papers of your other children. Sort your mails and bills daily or as often as you could. Do not let it pile up. Credit card bills should be instantly burned up or shredded after you settle the amount. You could also keep papers for recycling.
Always clean the house. Put out or keep children’s toys where they should be. It would help if you would designate a drawer or cabinet to store all of your children’s stuff. Be sure not to mix their toys so that they would not create a mess whenever they find their items. Again, old toys should go. Your child might have sentimental values or attachments with some, but those that are practically worthless should already go. They would just pile up.
Do not stuff your home with too much decors and ornaments. It would be ideal if you would become minimalist. Arrange your furniture and appliances in a way that everyone in the house could have adequate and luxurious free space for extra movements. Your children might run across the rooms every now and then, so be sure no fragile items are displayed.
Today’s world is one of ever-increasing activity. Families rush around from one thing to the next, juggling work, school, numerous extra activities, and maybe (if they are lucky) some sort of social life. Understandably, this is often a hectic and stressful process for all those involved. Parents in particular may find it difficult to orchestrate the numerous soccer practices, ballet lessons, and swim meets their children must attend. And that is not even mentioning any extra time that might be required for work or other activities not related to their kids.
So how can you make all these thing work without ripping your hair out in frustration? Well, the best way is to streamline your planning. This can be accomplished with a number of methods, but they all essentially boil down to planning your activities in advance and in detail to avoid hassles and confusion.
You can use some kind of organizer or planner as a central point for your family’s activities. This can be a professionally designed system, such as those you might find in office supply stores, or it can be a simple ring-binder notebook. Divide the notebook into sections for each family member, and use it to keep track of any appointments and dates, as well as notes and important phone numbers.
Bring your family together once a week to make out a master schedule for the week and place it in the front of the binder. This should include any activities your children will need to be taken to, and who will be taking them. This will prevent the confusion over who needs to go where, which is far too commonplace without any scheduling. This also gives you a good idea of just how full your schedule is, and will help you determine if you need to cut back on anything to make your schedules easier to manage.
When you’re the woman of the house, it’s often expected that you’re going to be the one primarily in charge of keeping the home clean and running smoothly. You may not be able to do everything, however, and really need to get the whole family to help you get organized.
Division of labor in the home is one topic that causes stress among families. The man of the house often feels that the house is the woman’s domain and therefore he shouldn’t have to help. And we know what happens when we ask the children to help with chores. You’d think we asked them to walk over broken glass or something equally sinister.
The problem with organizing the home and delegation of chores is that you may work away from the home as well. Even if you’re a stay-at-home mom, that doesn’t mean you’re the only one who does the work. If everyone made the clutter or the mess, it only makes sense that everyone in the family should help to organize and clean.
First, getting the whole family to help you get organized will take some effort. Be sure not to nag and coerce them into helping just to get to you stop nagging. They’ll only resent you for it. Ask them to help, giving them tasks they may find enjoyable, or at least not completely boring.
If you can get everyone to take care of their own messes, it will make your job easier. Have them put their own clothes in the hamper instead of leaving them on the floor, take their dishes to the sink when they’re done, and clean up anything they spill. Help them remember that you’re not a slave and that everyone in the family is expected to chip in with the chores.
When your children are younger, you may have to spend extra time teaching them how to clean and organize their own things. The effort, if they are receptive to learning, will be well worth it in the future. You won’t have to worry about their being able to take care of their own things, they will be less likely to lose them, and they’ll be better prepared to live on their own when the time comes.
Staying organized, at least as far as being where you’re supposed to be on time, will be easier if everyone knows how to read a calendar. Whenever the children bring home a paper with an important date to remember, transfer it to a family calendar. Color-code the calendar so everyone has their own color. You’ll all be able to look at the calendar and quickly see if you have something to do that day.
To help keep the home organized and running smoothly, you may have to get creative. Your goal is to help everyone learn personal responsibility even if that means being tough when someone doesn’t pitch in. Encourage each family member in a way that will appeal and you’re closer to getting the whole family to help you get organized and clean up the house.
