Organising children and keeping them focussed and on task can be one of the hardest and most frustrating jobs as a parent today.
You find yourself continually nagging, repeating yourself constantly, only to find that when you're in the car ready to go, the kids haven't packed a jumper or cleaned their teeth and after you've dropped them at school and come home again to continue tidying up, their dirty washing is still in their rooms and the wet towels are sitting in crumpled heaps on the floor.
It just shouldn't be so hard to keep our children organised.
And I now don't believe it is.
There is something to be said for using chore charts and rewards charts for helping keep the kids on task.
But they can't just be a list on the fridge.
A chore chart needs to be engaging to children of all ages.
It has to grab their attention.
It needs to be clear and specific and most of all it needs to make them want to do the things that are there.
The best way to achieve this is to get the children involved in selecting the chores right from the beginning.
Ask them questions about what they see as jobs that need to be done around the house, and of these, which they feel they are capable (and comfortable) of doing.
In this way, they are choosing that which they feel they can do rather than having the tasks forced upon them.
So when they object then to having to do the said task, you can simply put it back to them that it was one of the tasks that they chose to do themselves.
By doing this you are enhancing their sense of responsibility.
The next thing you may want to consider when organising your children, is ask them what kind of rewards (or incentives) they may feel would be appropriate for carrying out these chores.
This could be a monitory reward, one on one time, extra computer time or an outing at the end of the week.
The goal here is that at the end of the week, there is something for them to look forward to, a reason for completing their chores.
The final thing to consider when putting together a chore chart, is to make it engaging in itself.
Use bright colours, illustrations, personalise it and again, let the children be involved in this process too.
In this way they are making it their own.
Taking ownership of it and all that it entails.
To keep them engaged on an ongoing basis, change the look of the chart regularly.
May be have the children pick a new colour, or a new job to do.
Rearrange the jobs on the chart itself so that it looks different day to day or week to week.
When organising children, you need to keep them stimulated on an ongoing basis and always be one step ahead of them.
But ultimately, your goal would be for the children to be able to organise themselves.
So keep working at the chore charts, and keep the children involved as this is the best way in which they will learn.
That, and leading by example.
Be organised yourself and it will flow on through your children.