Children and Chores … Mom, Can I Help Around the House?
Filed under: Family Management, Organize My Kids, Organizing Products & Reviews
To celebrate of the third printing of my book and family chore system, Mom, Can I Help Around the House? A Simple Step-by-step System for Teaching Your Children Life-long Skills for Pitching in and Picking up, published in 2007, (http://www.KidsandChores.net), I am starting a new series about the importance of and the steps to teach your children household skills and responsibilities. There’s no better time than now to begin your kids on the path to learning to care for their belongings and to contribute to their family in a positive way.
Why are these skills important?
Many clients ask me this question? My answer is that learning to care and manage a home is a skill. If you believe that your kids will these skills just by observing you, then you are doing them a great disservice. Life and home management skills are developed in the same way that other skills are developed – by doing, practicing and mastering. These are the skills children need to manage their life now, as a young adult and as a parent. Research supports this (which I’ll delve into in future posts), and the importance of children learning these skills when they are young, cannot be underestimated.
As I’ve observed in my work with clients, there seems to be less and less time for children to learn valuable organizing skills from their busy parents. Getting organized involves more than typical kid cleaning does. That is, shoving stuff under the bed and in the closets just isn’t going to cut it. Instead, kids need to think of organizing as an ongoing, and fun game of strategy.
To get started, first brainstorm the goals of organizing your child’s room or play area and be sure to involve your child in the process. Ask yourself, what do you want to accomplish… free up closet space, set-up a play area, purge unused toys, or all of the above? Once the goals for the space are identified, the project takes on a purpose and structure that will help your child to become excited and invested in the goal. By age 7-8 children appreciate being part of the strategizing process and take pride and ownership in their own space.
Next, get rid of broken and stuff rarely used. After an initial clutter clearing, it is easier to assess what needs to be stored in the space. Prepare your children for the purging process by explaining that their new holiday gifts need a place to live, so some old toys need to go to make room. I recommend the “in and out” inventory rule that I often use with adult clients too. Have your kids divide their toys into three piles.
- Keep – their favorites
- Donate – toys rarely used and in good shape
- Throw away – broken or worn out
Once you determine what your child is keeping, divide the keepers into categories, like art supplies, video games and action figures/dolls. Now you can determine what type of storage you need to store the keepers. A multi-functioning piece of furniture like a bookshelf is an excellent addition to a child’s room. For toys and other small items, I recommend labeled clear plastic bins or boxes. Keeping items visible and accessible is important for successful storage and retrieval. If they need it often, they should be able to get to it easily and put it away easily.
Still, no matter how many storage boxes you buy, getting kids organized won’t be instantaneous. Organization is a learned skill. Once the new toys have a home, kids need to understand the steps to and expectations for keeping their space and belongings organized. These new actions, done consistently, will take time to become habit. So consistency and patience on your part is key. Don’t expect the organization to happen overnight – but know that the rewards long-term, perhaps until the next holiday purge, are well worth the effort for both you and your child.
More on this topic in posts to come.
Originally posted 2008-08-20 07:50:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Related posts:
