Organisation with school age children (part 3)

"Go and clean your room!"

The words that strike fear into the hearts of children. Not only because they would rather be doing something else, but sometimes they simply do not know how or where to start.

For this reason I made a little sign for Sarah's bedroom so she does know where to start.

If she works through each item on the list, her room ends up pretty tidy, and she ends up pretty pleased with herself.

Organisation with school age children (Part 2)

Homework and School bags are two potentially stressful things that enter the house once your kids start school.

We use the trusty IKEA Expedit storage unit to store our kids shoes and their school bags. School bag above and shoes below hidden away in a box, very simple but stress free!

I got sick of the "I can't do my homework because I can't find a pen, pencil, rubber, sharpener, glue stick....blah blah etc etc", so I devised the Homework Tin. It's just an old cannister filled with all of the above. I make sure it is well stocked, and there is no excuse for not doing homework.

Organisation with school age children.

Those who know me fairly well may laugh that I am writing a post on organisation, but I have developed a few ideas over the years that work for me, and lessen the chaos (which I refer to as 'the creative vibe of the house') that we live in.

The first is the humble list. Lists really are so useful. This one is for the big kids to follow every morning. The idea is that the TV or computer does not go on until they have done everything on their list.

The second is a version of the zip-lock bag. (My mum and I go nuts for zip-lock bags, in all sizes.) At the beginning of every year I buy each child an A3 size plastic zip folder and everything paper that arrives in the house goes into it.
Certificates, awards, artwork, schoolwork, birthday cards etc....
At the end of the year you can cull it down a bit and only keep what is really precious, and when they leave home I will be handing them a large pile of plastic folders.