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Picnic Table Talk: Organization

I try to provide my children with as many opportunities to explore their world and express themselves as possible, while maintaining a reasonably clean house. Organization is something I think about frequently, and a topic I have blogged about before.

I haven’t done much to organize learning in our house; I think very young children learn a lot by exploring their world, particularly if parents pay attention to and discuss their children’s interests. I am considering a loose adaptation of Sue Patrick’s Workbox System to provide Emma and Johnny with things to do at their play table with minimal supervision when I am busy with the baby. If anyone has used workboxes in this way with young children, I would love to hear about it! Some things I would put in the workboxes:

  • Play dough, sometimes on it’s own, sometimes with one of our homemade play mats.
  • Pattern blocks, sometimes with templates like the ones I referred to in this post.
  • File folder games like this one.
  • Their travel felt boards with the activities mentioned in this post.
  • Their crayon rolls and paper/coloring pages
  • These paint brushes and paper

Have any other suggestions as to what I should put in these bins? I’d love any other ideas!

Here are a few things that work well for us in terms of physical organization:

  • Divide craft materials into categories. I have some supplies (colored paper, fabric scraps, and pipe cleaners) that I let the kids use with minimal supervision. The next category is supplies that both kids can use with light supervision (crayons, markers, glue), followed by materials that require close supervision (small beads, scissors).
  • Categorize toys. We keep our building toys in a different part of the house from stuffed animals and dolls, which are also separate from books. Puzzles are kept separately from other toys also.
  • Make clean-up fun and easy. Each toy has a place where it always goes, and I use containers that are easy for my kids to put toys into. Sometimes they will clean up a toy on their own, but more often I clean up alongside them. If they’re reluctant to help pick up, we’ll sing a song and/or turn clean-up into a game (who can find the most red duplos, who can pick their toy up the most quickly, etc)
  • Catch destructive mode before it’s full-blown. Emma and Johnny both occasionally go into destructive mode. For Johnny, this typically means he needs a nap; for Emma it’s a signal that she needs to do a structured activity.

What organizing tricks simplify your life?

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

19 thoughts on “Picnic Table Talk: Organization”

  1. MaryAnne, I just posted TONS of ideas of what to put in workboxes on my blog. Some of them might work for you.

  2. @Raising a Happy Child – thanks for sharing how workboxes are going for you so far, and the ideas of what to put in them!

  3. Raising a Happy Child

    Great post, Diana! I just started to look at workbox system too, but I admit that so far it didn't work out too well. I think it's because Anna wasn't "an owner" when I set it up, and I am thinking of redoing it together with her. She does take things out of the boxes, but not as often as I would like :) Anyway, we have a box of small toys (quite frankly, it evolved into "catch all" box very quickly), phonics books with stickers (this is the one that she uses most), magnetic letters, scissors, paper, magazine pages, glue stick for collages, play food box, play pizza box, memory game cards, etc. She also has access to wipe-out books, but I still supervise her closely, because those markers leave nasty stains if they are not removed while still wet.

  4. @Little Nut Tree – My daughter might finally be ready for a wipe-clean book, and I think she could enjoy sewing cards too, thanks for the suggestions!

  5. Great ideas. Not sure how old your two are – but maybe sewing cards? I made a couple for Froglet, who's nearly four and he wasn't so bothered.
    We also have one of those books that are wipe-clean (ours is called Things That Go) and they come with a special pen to trace over the numbers and letters and drawings. I guess that might be for later when you know they'll only use it for tracing!

  6. Valerie @ Frugal Family Fun Blog

    Work boxes are a great idea, especially for after the baby comes. Emily enjoyed handmade magnet games, sticker workbooks, and the mess-free Color Wonder books after Clara was born. Oh, and plenty of time with grandma and grandpa! ;-)

  7. oh and the other work box ideas I had are: puzzles, small toys (I have a bag of animals they only use at school time that are popular), coloring books. You might have put coloring books

  8. i love organisation suggestions!! trust me organising skills is one thing i lack! work boxes sound like a good idea

  9. I am excited to try the workboxes also!

    I find that no matter how much I organize, Abby can go find what she needs. If she wants a doll with her blocks, she'll run and find it.

  10. I love the play dough place mats you've made–I want to try some of those for my youngest two.

    Thank you so much for sharing the template links for the pattern blocks!! I just received our blocks in the mail yesterday and can't wait to use them next week. I did order the pattern cards as well, but there aren't many and I will definitely be printing these out that you shared!!

    You are too creative:-)!!

  11. @Diana – I love the idea of work boxes, we'll see how well I execute it in practice…

    @Ticia – I can't wait for the day when my children can be trusted with markers. My daughter is fine, but my son…

  12. @Katherine – Good point about dolls and blocks. Come to think of it, it's only the big dolls that are kept separate (10+ inches), although they could in theory be used with blocks too… So far my kids haven't really used people with blocks (or small blocks as people), but I definitely remember doing that a lot as a child, so maybe they'll grow into it?

  13. We need more organization! But I specifically don't keep the building toys separate from the dolls, because my daughter is always putting them together. Of course, the tiniest blocks are often people for her too.

  14. I"m with you on dividing craft materials into levels of supervision. Markers have finally moved into a lower supervision level. They've mostly gotten to where they color on paper…..

  15. I am thinking about doing something similar to work boxes, too. I will be watching to see what you do. Thanks for sharing your great organizational ideas!

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