Thanks for taking the time to comment on my first post. Thanks also for being patient with me as I'm not really into the habit of this yet, but I know I will be soon :) I wanted to paste a comment here from Kathryn that I thought was great:
"These two activities came from a Valerie Bendt newsletter I got this week...
Set Up Activity Centers for Your Preschoolers:
Wash the Doll Clothes
Preschoolers love to imitate Mom and Dad. Here is an activity that is sure to bring hours of fun. Be certain to place a towel or two on the floor! Once your child has washed the doll clothes, or other small items such as socks or wash cloths, he or she can blot them on a towel and then hang them on the line!
Beans, Beans, Beans!
Here is an inexpensive and fun-filled activity. Buy several packages of dried beans such as black beans, garbanzo beans, and kidney beans. Pour them into bowls and provide your preschoolers with measuring cups and scoops for lots of fun! A small plastic tub or pool helps keep dried beans in one place. Store beans in a plastic container to use again. Kids love the sound and texture of the beans. (Not intended for small children who may put the beans in their mouths, noses, ears, and so on!)
Also this tip I love because I always seem to be in the middle of working with Layton and everyone decides they are hungry...While preparing breakfast, pack a lunch box with healthy snacks for your preschoolers. Then when they say, "I'm hungry!" you can tell them to go and get their lunch boxes and have their snacks. This helps to prevent interruptions while you are working with an older child."
I'm glad she mentioned "dried beans" because I would have been getting my can opener out. Ewww...
OK, this weeks topic is organization. Sometimes I can think deep, really, I can, but most of the time I just want something practical that makes my day go smoother. I know I would love some VERY simple organization tips that are easy to implement, so I'm sure other women would also. Here's my tip and I can't wait to read some from you!!
I found that out of all the tasks involved with getting the children ready to go somewhere, the hardest was socks. Remember, I have four girls which means that hair fixing should have topped the list but nooooo, it was those socks that would always make things difficult. I would send them to their rooms to get socks on and they would come out with mix-matched socks. I would tell them to get socks that match each other. They'd head back to their rooms and then 10 minutes later some out with bright green socks. I guess I needed to be more clear. "Put on some socks that match each other and that match your outfit." OK, so I would send them back upstairs and 10 minutes later they would yell down, "I can't find any socks that match!!" And so it would go. So, in desperation, I created the sock basket. It's a basket. It's sits by the door. It holds ALL the kids socks. Simple. I LOVE IT! The kids love it. It works because it's putting the socks at the place where we put them on anyway. I used this basic principle in other areas of my home as well. I couldn't believe how many item I kept in a certain place just because it went there not because it was where I used it. Once a week, one of the kids has the chore of organizing the sock basket which simply means they pair up socks that have been separated and toss any that somehow found their way in the basket without a match. It seems that most friends that come to my house say something positive about the sock basket, so I thought I'd share that. How 'bout you? Got some simple home organization advice that you can share? Let's hear it...
8 comments:
I love the sock basket idea if all of the socks would just come out of the dryer. We do the same thing for shoes by the front door. I really have good intentions of staying organized but I wish I did a better job. I used to be more organized with the kids art supplies. I would have little tupperware bins that I would put labels on and everything had it's place. I dont know why I just cant seem to get that organized anymore. Looking forward to hearing from others to help me out too!!
I've kept kid's toys to a minimum and they are set out in small bins around the room in stations. We have two types of blocks, cars, cooking set, tea party set, puzzles, scrap paper for cutting, art supplies, lacing cards and beads, and dress up clothes. Books are in a book shelf in the living room. We also have some bins for miscellaneous toys. Even when the play room is a wreck it only takes about five minutes to clean it up. The kids, 4 and 2, know where everything goes. I can tell Gabe to pick up cars and he knows where they all go. Baby dolls and train set are in their rooms but that's it.
That's about it for my organizing tips. I'll be back to see what everyone else does.
Your kids wear socks? That match? I do the same thing as the last comment with the toys. They all have their own bins and only one bin is supposed to be out at a time. I like your book shelf organizing, with the pans of books. I know that isn't my idea, but I plan on using it as soon as we get our house! I also keep a big basket next to our shelves specifically for our library books. That way, when we need to get more books we know exactly where the return ones are.
on the sock issue, we buy all the same kind....no color variations, no designer ones...all the same....this way all socks are a match. you have to keep it simple for me
playroom...we have baskets with mini chalkboards on the front. we write CARS and draw a care for our nonreader toddlers. this is the basket for all cars...we do the same for dinosaurs, etc. this makes cleaning the playroom easy and i am working on a state standard in education by SORTING items. yea, that is me...always teaching my kids a valuable lesson....yep, ms. education.... i have tried to implement this with the knives, but it got a little messy.
I used to keep a plastic basket of each kid's shoes in the bathroom on the bottom shelf of the changing table. On the front of each basket, I taped a sheet of paper that was their first initial from a pad of paper I got from Dollar Tree. I bought a pad of letter paper of each member's first initial.
My thought was to use it for special notes...reminders...labels specifically for them...etc...haven't used it other than to label shoe baskets and baskets for diapers since I have had two in diapers at a time for the past 4 years.
The letters were each a different bright color so you could start them out knowing the color and eventually they recognize the letter as theirs as well.
Playrooms???? I only wish I HAD a playroom. Kitty, you know we love the sock idea :-) I do have a hat/mittens draw where everybody's are located, The kids each have a play clothes drawer in their room, but that's as organized at it gets. We don't have a playroom, but we do however have a hunting closet :-) ALL of the hunting clothes go here so when a season rolls around, we just go pull out what we need and to the woods we go.
When we had no playroom and the boys were younger we divided the toys into large totes (not the super large ones) and that was their toy selection for that week. We rotated about 4 or 5 of these. It made clean up easy and they didn't get overwhelmed or bored by their choices. We also put a wooden shelf that went the whole length of the wall, about 20 inches from the ceiling, in the family room and bedrooms. This was for games, "special books", things that we wanted to protect from curious little ones, ie. lego creations, crafts, etc. Lastly, each child has a Special Drawer. These are off limits to each of the other kids. They can put anything they receive, find, make, etc. in their Special Drawer. If something doesn't fit, it becomes community property after the first day they recieve it (the 1st day they buy/receive something they don't have to share). This helps their room stay tidy (all 3 boys share a room) because the only other toys allowed in their room are their personal stuffed animals on each of their beds.
My big tip is to limit the stuff you need to organize. Only "x" pairs of shorts, shoes, shirts, dress pants, jeans, dresses, etc. Same with different types of toys. That made finding another "deal" or getting "new" hand me downs or gifts from friends more manageable. If we had too many we didn't buy it no matter how great a deal it was. If something someone gave as a gift or handed down to us was wonderful we chose something in that same category to pass along to others. Sometimes we even passed things along that were new to especially bless others!
Every few months we realize certain categories have gotten out of hand, anyway. We go through and choose items to pass along to friends.
A Sundays/special days organizer is to get it ready the night before. All clothes, shoes, hair accessories, etc. must be in a neat pile where the child will need it while getting dressed in the morning. All Bibles, pencils, notebooks, papers, etc. must be in an easily carry-able stack or bag by the front door. (In the van would be better but we haven't made it there yet.) All nonrefrigerator items need to be on the table. (Lucky Charms in the middle of the table and bowls and spoons at each person's place.) Then all we have to do is pull out the milk and pour it! (BEFORE they get dressed!) We always have "Sunday" cereal that they especially love on Sundays.
BTW, Jodi, please get my email address from Kitty! Have you heard about Caleb?
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