Do your children whine when told to pick a junk or clean the surroundings in your home? Or, clutter their rooms with junk in the form of play toys and books? If yes, then they are heading in the wrong direction.
In reality, being organised is not something that you are born with. It is a virtue initiated and advanced through a systematic learning process. Depending on how you were raised, the virtue can come either early or later in life. Here is what you need to know about teaching your children to become organised.
It all starts with yourself
When habits start early, they remain for a lifetime. Children start to learn at the age of as early as one month. This is when they start to see and hear from their respective parents. Instilling the habit of neatness and organisation means acknowledging, adopting, adoring the virtue first; and being a role model. Donate the toys that the children no longer use. Organise their rooms. Wake up to cleaning and keeping the house spotless. You don’t need to show the kids to follow suit since they will automatically observe this and develop some interests. Forcing them into cleaning or organising anything can result in nagging.
Engage the children
Children are positive prompts. Once you have realised that they have started developing some interests in work, all you need is to engage them. However, this should be done in the most respectful, esteemed and motivating manner. Remaining assertive while using polite phrases such as please can help a bunch. Staying clear, positive and attentive to what the children say matters a lot. Attracting the attention and successfully engaging the children without frazzles, frustrations, nagging and screams is a big step towards achieving your goals.
Create a checklist
Checklists are very important when it comes to organising yourself. It gives an insight into all that is to be done. Children’s checklist should be precise, simple and clear. It should contain only those chores that you want the children to do.
A simple checklist should have a title such as “three places to clean before going to sleep” This checklist should only contain safe places that the children can effortlessly access. Otherwise, when creating a checklist, it is good to engage the child when curating the task. You can come up with a number of tasks and give the child to choose from.
Come up with a schedule
Jotting down the things to be done is just the beginning. The bulk lies with ensuring that the children are motivated enough to do the chores as per required level. This is where the schedule comes. Unlike checklists, the schedule contains the task at hand and the most appropriate time to do it. This can be early in the morning, late in the evening or just before going to sleep. Organisation schedule should clearly stipulate the priority task followed by other tasks. These can be the arrangement of books, clothes, bedding or cleaning of the patio, rooms or verandas.
Monitor the kids’ progress
Other than the checklist and schedule, as a low-key coach, you need to have a separate list of set expectations. This helps in counter checking the kids’ achievements against the set goals. Ask relevant questions to prompt the thoughts of your children. This should be done in the most engaging and caring manner. Stay focused on the children’s opinions.
Give the kids a pat on the back whenever you see any progress in them. However, do not go overboard in your praises. Another good way to motivate the kids is through awarding them. This can be in the form of holiday vacations, family trips, new toys, clothes or learning materials. Do not dish out cash to the children.
Teaching your children about remaining naturally organised can sound difficult. In most cases, parents resort to battering or caning to infuse these basic organisational skills to their kids’ brain. However, this is not only punishable but overly immoral. Remember, how clean your environment is matters a lot since the child learns from the immediate environment. The aforementioned strategies will help you with being your child’s planner, motivator and role model.
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