http://www.fridayschildmontessori.com/blog/storage-organisation-and-other-battlegrounds/ Find out some tips on how to keep your kid's stuff more organized. Follow our brilliant guide.

1. Storage, Organisation And
Other Battlegrounds
www.fridayschildmontessori.com

2. OK, anyone who says that getting
children to tidy up after themselves is
easy is being somewhat
economical with
the truth.

3. Yes, one of the things that your
children will learn by attending a
Montessori early childhood centre is
that equipment should be put away
properly and it should
be put away as soon
as you’ve finished
dealing with it.

4. However, a Montessori centre, like
other kindergartens and early childhood
centres, is set up to make this easy for
children.

5. They’re child-centred and so they
should be. Family homes, however, are
different. We all know that children
grow up very quickly and homes can’t
be exclusively designed around them –
what suits them t
oday won’t suit them
in four years time.

6. So what’s a parent to do?

7. One thing you should certainly do is to
insist that the Montessori principle of
putting it away straight away and
putting it away properly is continued at
home –

8. it’ll make things easier for you and it will
be easier for all of us here at the
Montessori centre.
And it would also make sense to have
systems in place
to help your children
be organised.

9. This may or may not mean having
child-sized equipment, depending on
your budget.

10. One trap that many parents fall into is
having too many toys for their children.

11. Not only does this have a
tendency to degenerate into
muddle but it also means that
your children become blasé
about everything they own more
quickly.

12. One way of cutting the clutter and
ensuring that your children don’t get
bored with what they have is to rotate
toys and sets.

14. Basics that are played with
frequently, craft activities and
special cuddly toys should stay
out all the time – but put away
in place! But other things can
be used to create a DIY toy
library.

15. For example, this month, you
have the doll’s tea sets out for
use, while the dressing-up
clothes, the Lego, the paddling
pool and the pavement chalk
are tucked away in the
garage/attic/cupboard under
the stairs.

17. Next month, the tea set goes
away and your child picks out
a new set to use.

18. And don’t think that all your
storage items for children have
to be bought new. You don’t
even have to use second hand
ones.

19. Ice cream containers, cardboard
boxes of all sizes (cardboard
wineboxes with the top cut off
on a slant is one solution used
by many schools and early
childhood centres and they’re as
tough as they come), yoghurt
containers, bottles and
margarine tubs are all excellent
storage solutions.

20. www.fridayschildmontessori.com