Helping your children acquire organizational skills might seem like a hefty task, but there are plenty of ways you could incorporate a sense of organization into their day through fun routines and tasks. So many children struggle with time management and organization, and that often continues into their adulthood. Teaching your children these skills from a young age will help them a lot later in life.For Keeping in mind these things GIIS has started a Summer Camps which will be helpful for childeren who wants to acquire organizational skills.
1. Choose a Good School
For starters, get them into the right school. We at GIIS Tokyo believe that schools are like a second home. They teach value systems, beliefs, and practices. Many of what your children will learn at this age will serve them well when they grow up. An international school in Tokyo, for instance, can provide a solid foundation of skills. With lessons that tackle organization and time management importance, your children will start putting those ideas into practice in a breeze. These are some ways to get started.
2. Introduce Checklists
Start simple. Go with something like: “3 things you have to do before you go to bed.” Or “What to wear before going out.” The first list will likely have these on the list: brush your teeth, change into your pajamas, say a prayer. The second one will likely include: “wear your mask, always wash your hands, stay a certain distance from everyone else when you’re outside.”
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3. Give Them Sorting Chores
Think about asking them to do chores that involve sorting. For instance, they could sort out the socks or shoes. If you’re cleaning out a closet, have them there with you to see how you do it. From planning the chore to making lists or arranging the items, your children will learn a lot from seeing you perform these tasks.
4. Get Them Planners
You could also give your children a planner. That will hopefully encourage them to sort out their time. With plenty of options that offer kid-friendly designs, you won’t have to settle for too-serious or boring-looking planners that your children won’t want to have anything to do with. Anything with Peppa Pig, Elsa, and other famous cartoon characters will win you their abiding love and affection, hands down. That or find out who their favorite characters are. Iron Man? Captain America?
5. Set Up a Study Space
Make sure your children block off a particular hour or time for studying. That helps turn that into a habit, which helps train them mentally for the activity. That way, whenever that hour or time approaches, they know what they need to do. In some ways, as soon as they see the time, they’ll immediately start preparing their desks as well as themselves mentally, and that’s an excellent way to instill excellent study habits in your little ones.
Also Read: What Parents Should Do When Their Child Hates Going to School?
6. Talk About Wants and Needs
Learning to prioritize is a crucial skill. Which tasks matter more? That’s a question you’ll want your child to know how to answer. You could talk to them about sorting out and prioritizing what they want to do. For instance, doing homework is a priority. Playing after isn’t. By recognizing early on what wants are and how they differ from needs, your children will hopefully learn how to pick out which tasks and assignments they need to prioritize. As they get older, that skill is going to help them manage their time wisely, too.
7. Put Items Back
As a leading international school in Tokyo, we know that children love messes. They love upturning their full bags or hampers of toys. But that’s going to leave you with a perpetually messy home. One thing you can do to keep your sanity and stop that from happening is to train them to put one item back in before they take another one out. That works for their toys and everything else. Once your children learn this, you can keep the mess at home from getting too overwhelming.
8. Show Them How to Categorize
One fun way to keep everything neat and orderly at home is to show your kids how to categorize items. From their toys to the groceries, from kitchen items to garden supplies, this will help train their organizational skills, too. If they can categorize, label, and sort, those skills will come in handy at school as it helps them remember those concepts when they’re sorting through tasks or their desks.
9. Put Up a Daily Checklist
It helps if you put up a daily checklist or a list of things they need to get done every day. Study lists will be different from a list detailing their chores. That way, your kids only need to look at that schedule to remind them what they need to prepare for next. What class is going to start in five minutes? Which assignments should they prepare? Which books or learning materials should they get?
Also Read: 8 simple ways to help your child get more organized
10. Create a Family Calendar
A family calendar is a calendar where you put all your plans in. It can be something for your next vacation or what you will be doing during the weekend. Are you going to celebrate someone’s birthday soon? Or maybe you’ll want to get a cake and desserts when your children finally start school again, to celebrate.
11. Go for Smaller Steps
For many of the children, school may seem like only assignments, projects, and tasks. The volume of work might overwhelm your children. One thing you can do is to teach them how to break everything down into smaller steps. Which ones must be done first? If it’s a huge project, start with coming up with an idea. When your children know what they want to do, the next task is to list the materials needed. Supplies must be gathered after that. By going over the steps with them, they’ll learn what to do the next time. They also won’t be panicked or overwhelmed, no matter the size of the project or the volume of the work.
12. Encourage Them to Start Early
One of the worst nightmares for parents is to hear their children say something like: “we need a costume or this project for class tomorrow,” right when you’re tucking them into bed. Why they couldn’t have said that throughout the day, parents since time immemorial have no idea. You can put a stop to these harrowing requests by training your children to start on their projects early. If they have something they need to do, teach them to prepare for those projects in advance.
Ask our teachers at the Global Indian International School in Tokyo for suggestions and tips. Teach your children the value of preparing for things well ahead of schedule. They won’t be rushing or panicking. They have plenty of time to go over the details so that they won’t make a mistake. By preparing in advance, they won’t have to cram—and neither will you.
