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Last updated on September 2nd, 2023 at 08:01 am
One important part of educating a child is teaching life skills such as doing laundry, washing dishes, and cooking. But something that’s often overlooked? Skills that help a preschooler learn to organize.
I heard Emily Ley talking about how her mom would help her declutter her room. And when someone criticized her mom for it, she replied, “She doesn’t know how to do it. I have to teach her.”
I feel the same way.
Not only is it my responsibility to teach my daughter life skills like doing laundry and cooking a meal, but I also have to teach her how to keep organized, too.
There are 3 skills to help my preschooler learn to organize.
01. Picking up after herself
If you don’t pick up after yourself, you’re bound to have a huge mess by the end of the day. This is a tough one to teach because kids notoriously leave their toys everywhere when they play.
But I keep on top of it. I’ll take breaks every hour or two to make her pick up the toys she’s not playing with. Although she dilly-dallies and takes forever, complains and gets caught playing, I still make her do it. Someday she’ll thank me.
She’s also responsible for putting her laundry in the hamper, putting away her shoes, and throwing away her trash. Now that I trust her enough, it’s her responsibility to clear her plate from the table after each meal.
If I don’t get her into the habit now, she may get stuck with a bad habit of waiting for me to do it for her. And that won’t do her any good when she moves out someday.
02. Putting items back where they belong
One of the first rules of organizing is that everything has a home. When Juliana picks up after herself, she’s expected to put things back where they belong. In order for her to do this, though, I had to give everything a place and teach her where it is.
She knows which toys belong in which boxes or places in her playroom. She knows where her clothes go when she puts away her laundry (because that’s her job too).
This is system teaches her how to always be able to find what she’s looking for.
03. Letting go
I remember having toys hidden under my bed or tucked away in my closet when I was a kid. I wasn’t trying to hide them –I just didn’t play with them and didn’t want to play with them. At that time I didn’t know I didn’t have to keep stuff I don’t want.
Every few months (and definitely before Christmas), I help Juliana declutter her playroom. I let her know that it’s ok to give away her toys if she isn’t playing with them so another kid (maybe one who doesn’t have many toys) can enjoy them instead.
I ask her if she feels happy when she plays with certain toys or if she doesn’t like playing with them. She’s getting to the point now where she can tell me she doesn’t want something.
This has taken a few tries and it didn’t go too well the first time. But it’s something I want her to understand and practice so she can do it on her own when she gets older.
Help your preschooler learn to organize
These organizing skills, like everything else, take time to teach young kids. But these 3 skills are practical to teach as long as you practice them every single day.
Teaching your kids how to organize? Download the free “10-Minute Tidy Checklist” right here.
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