Yes, this time I am talking about kids. But before we start let's think about
how being disorganized affects our kids and those around us. And this would be a good time to reflect on your disorganization. I know with me when my house is a mess I am instantly in a bad mood. Everything sets me off. One of the worst things is how sometimes it can take close to 30 minutes just to find everyone's shoes, not to mention everything else we need to leave the house. Then, realizing later what we forgot, simple things. ugh! Yes Being unorganized makes me crazy, and that can't be fun to live with. So just simply living with me in a disorganized messy environment has a negative effect on my family. This may be a good time to just jot down a few things that have happened in the last few days as a result of being disorganized, use these things you write down as encouragement to change your ways.
Now thinking of kids, there are also many studies out there showing disorganization can cause children to be misdiagnosed with learning disabilities, such as ADHD/ADD, which could lead to medicating a child the doesn't really need to be. And if you have a child who truly is ADD/ADHD or have any other learning disability, being more organized can really help them, possibly keeping them off some of the questionable drugs. Also when you spend most of your time sorting through messes you have less time to do other things, like fix your family nutritious meals or even just spend some extra family time together.
So now you have read all this and are reflecting and thinking, but my kids are also so disorganized! And you may be thinking of giving up. Before you do here is one thing to think about, kids need to be taught, and I am talking about more than just school. They need to be taught everything, right from the very beginning, you smile at your baby to try and "teach" them to smile back, you help your toddler gain confidence while teaching him how to walk by holding his hands, you repeat things over and over helping them learn how to talk.... why wouldn't you help them learn how to clean? That is something I have seen a lot of parents overlook, for some reason we tend to think it is a inborn trait. Parents simply assume the child knows how to do a chore, how to clean, or how to organize and put away toys. Think about this next time you ask your child to do something, have you taught them the ins and outs of the chore they are doing? Have you taught them about the order of doing things and discussed why you do things this way? Have you taught them about cleaners and how they are used and what they are used on (and the dangers of cleaners)?
After I am sure that my child knows how to clean I have a few things that I do to help encourage my children. We have chore charts and star charts we use to help remind and reward the kids. I always have some small treats or candies near by. If I catch a child cleaning on their own, I make sure to publicly praise them so other kids can hear how good they were and give them a small candy. I also usually have a "secret item" somewhere in the house, usually this is something that I have noticed isn't getting put away, when someone finally notices it and puts it away they get a prize. This helps teach my kids to be aware of things around them and be more attentive.
For younger kids cleaning songs are great, I tend to make mine up as I go along or I encourage one of the other kids to make up a cleaning song which also encourages their creativity and imagination. You can find a few songs on this site, you can also search www.youtube.com for preschool cleaning songs. Ipods with parent approved up beat music are great for older children to help them get their chores done.
Now if I could only figure out how to organize all those toys!!! And lets face it with 8 kids ranging from ages 1 through 16, I have toys for all ages floating around my home. But, I think I will touch on that in another post.
