It’s never too early to start teaching your child how to organize! In fact, there are many organizational activities that help your child to learn and develop. Teaching your child how to help teaches them so many wonderful lessons. It’s not just about cleaning and staying organized, it’s about taking full advantage of that growing brain and developing personality!
Make sure that you use lots of positive language, touch, expression and reinforcement. Children actually produce growth hormones and have hormone surges that boost their learning power when they receive attention. Human interaction makes them feel good and they crave that feeling. They will do whatever it takes to get that attention, whether it be good or bad. So, it’s definitely best to give your child plenty of positive attention so that they can grow and be happy kids.
Start with something simple so that your child can experience the success and satisfaction of completing the project. The good feelings that they get when they do something by themselves is the same as when they receive attention from loved ones. Teaching them to complete tasks will help them to mature and entertain themselves with productive activities when you are unavailable. You can help them to get a grip on their emotions and exhibit less negative behaviors as they grow.
Make clean up time learning time. Help them sort things by color, texture, type, size or shape. Label small baskets or bins with examples of how you want things sorted. Let your child pick how they want to sort.
You can also teach them patterns while cleaning. You can do it with just about anything. For example, you can line up the laundry; sock, sock, shirt, sock, sock, shirt. Engage your child and encourage them to participate by guessing what is next or laying down what is next. You can even teach them to fold their clothes by making up a song about it. Use your child’s name in the song to get them excited about the process.
You can also teach your child how to hang laundry. Use small children’s hangers or infant hangers. Baby hangers are smaller than adult hangers, so they are easier for little hands to manage. They also will protect those precious little clothes from getting stretched out. Toddlers love to use tools to do things and using a hanger is like using a tool. Most kids love to hang clothes.
Teaching your toddler to help you organize sets a positive example and helps to prepare them for the future. You’ll enjoy the time that you spend together and you’ll also enjoy having a home that is more organized and inviting.
About the Author: Kurt Adams is on the staff of Only Kids Hangers, a leading provider of infant hangers. The right baby hangers, like wooden baby hangers and children’s coat hangers, keep baby clothers organized and children’s hangers are great for retail stores.
