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Organizational Skills for Children

© Cathy Malmrose

I used to think that my children would find their own comfort level of organization in their rooms and in their lives. I was wrong. Organization is a skill and it needs to be taught. Some of us learn it naturally; some of us fight with organization our entire lives.

The ability to organize covers more than keeping your room clean. Being able to organize your thoughts, organize your activities and organize your priorities is a crucial skill that will serve both you and your child well. How do we reinforce this ability in our children?

1. First, relax. Organization should never be an end-all goal. The focus should be on the play, the work, the project at hand. The organization of the project (or the clean-up afterwards) should be a necessary part, but not a central issue.

2. A crucial element of teaching children good organizational habits is to model it yourself. Whether you like it or not, your child will observe how you organize all aspects of your life. Keep in mind that it doesn't take a neat model home to provide a good role model for your children. You just need to thoughtful approach how you run your life and arrange the things around you.

3. Realize that our children have natural organizational abilities. Even the youngest infant is learning how to sort and organize things in her mind. Once you realize that your child already has natural organizational abilities, you'll see that these abilities need to be fine-tuned, just as all other abilities do. It's part of growing up.

4. Use whatever works well in your life. If you work off of To Do lists, make the child's equivalent: Chore Charts. Whatever method works well for you may also work well for your child. Try it and be flexible.

5. Approach organizing as you would approach any other teaching moment. Use the same kindness, professionalism and gentle touch that you would when teaching them their ABCs or other concept.

6. Start as young as possible. Although we want our children to feel free and comfortable in the world, we also realize that children appreciate that there is order and meaning in the world around them. Not only is it helpful for the child to hear the parent reinforce that "everything has a place", but it's also empowering for the child to be able to control the environment around him by cleaning it up effectively.