Blog: Helping Kids Become Organized
The ABC's of Organizing Kids: F is for First things First

Part of helping our kids become organized is to help them manage there time.  This is critical for all of us; especially as life becomes more hectic; running from place to place trying to "do it all".  What we want to do is to teach our kids to step back, look at it all and do first things first.  Stephen Covey along with A. Roger & Rebecca Merrill devote an entire book to the subject of First Things First.  The idea is to identify and prioritize our life's activities so that we do the most important things first.  If we do not do this we allow other things and other people to make those decisions for us and we only live to react to them versus consciously design our life's plan and execute it.

Our children, of course, want it all and they what it right now.  We are raising the "me" generation and they typically do not see either the cost this takes both in money and time.  What we want to do is to help teach them that time is a limited resource and that we have to make choices in how to spend it.  We do our children a great injustice when we allow them to think that they can have it all when they want it.  We know as adults, that this is not how the real world works.  What we can do is to allow them to be aware that there are choices and how those choices affect their own life and the lives of those around them. 

For example, when our children have activities, like sports, scouts, clubs, etc. in addition to those mandatory things like school, these take their time and the time of other family members.  The choice to participate in these, should allow them to maintain time for homework, eating, personal hygiene, keeping physical space clean and orderly, etc. Not doing these things can affect school grades when assignments are missed, time can be wasted in finding things, health can be affected in not eating correctly and taking care of hygiene.  Helping with household chores is an example of our children making choices.  You might say they have no choice but most of them work hard at doing as little as they can if any at all.  Having our children participate is part of teaching them to be responsible.  Let them know that by maintaining the chores that they need to do, they are allowing you the time to take them to the things that you "taxi" them to every day/week.  If they are not doing their part then you will have to stay home and make sure these things get done instead of running them around.  Our asking for them to participating in these household chores is not because we are trying to "make our children's life miserable", but they are assisting the family in order to allow the family the time to take them and/or participate in their activity.  This allows them to make the right choices toward their personal goals and that of their family. 

It is often noted that the busiest people are the most organized in getting things done.  I do not advocate that everyone needs to be "busy" all the time but when you have a lot going on it is much more imperative that we stay on top of things to not only get them done, but to make sure we are getting the most important  things done, first.  We might as well accept that our children are going to have a lot coming at them in school, in families and in careers.  By their learning to step back and look at all that there is and know how to determine what is most important, they will keep focused on doing the first things first.

posted on: 11/12/2007 9:00:00 AM by Rosanne Larkins
category: Family

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Helping Kids Become Organized

by Rosanne Larkins

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About Rosanne:

Rosanne Larkins, Defining Time & Space Professional Organizing, Helping people put peace into their life through simplifying things around them. Reduce stress through creating order, save money knowing what you have, save time knowing where to find things.