Four Tips To Organize Your Child
Keeping your children organized is essential to ensuring good grades and a peaceful household. Here are four ideas to help improve your child’s organizational skills.
1. Establish Routines.
Make sure you have daily routines in your household. Children thrive with consistency. Have the alarm clock sound at the same time every morning. Try to eat meals at the same time daily. Have your children do their homework, clean their bedrooms, brush their teeth, and take their baths at the same time every day. Established routines give children a sense of security and allow them to focus on schoolwork and other activities.
2. Make Check List.
Help your children get organized with daily checklists.
A homework checklist keeps our children on task and focused. Children feel a sense of accomplishment when they can check off that they have studied for a test or written their book report.
As children get older, they will learn to prioritize and only need occasional guidance. However, do not assume that since they are well organized with their established routine, they can handle a new project without parental guidance. Review your children’s plans to study for an AP Exam or plans to apply to universities and offer suggestions when needed to keep your child focused and on task.
3. Stay Focused.
No one can do everything. Too often, as parents, we keep insane schedules for our children. We do not want to deny them any experience that may enrich their lives, yet we find our children and ourselves overwhelmed. I know parents who fill every afternoon and weekend with extracurricular activities. Often, they have three or four children, all with different activities. Choose one or two activities to focus on and find activities your children can do together or that you can do as a family.
Several books have been written on this subject: The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom by Amy Chua. These books all conclude that it is better to focus on one or two activities and do them well instead of doing a little bit of everything.
Colleges and universities have also changed what they look for in student activities. They want focused students. The nationally ranked figure skater or champion golfer will have priority over the student who plays soccer, basketball, football, and track every year but never excels in any sport.
4. Don’t Quit.
It is human nature to want to quit when things get tough. At some point, every child will want to quit when they get an “F” on a spelling test, lose a soccer game, or spill the paint in art class. As parents, we have to teach our children that failure is part of the learning process. When things are not going well, ask them why, challenge them to analyze what is not working, and discuss ways to fix the issues.
When your children are discouraged, do not even allow them to quit their activities because things are not going as expected unless personal safety is at risk. When a child makes a commitment to an elective, sport, or club, insist they finish their commitment. Completing activities that did not go perfectly provides a learning experience that will strengthen your children’s planning and decision-making skills.