the importance of organization
i’m not saying things need to be perfect
but organized chaos is much much better than just chaos
you want a balance that works for you-and organization is something that is so important and yet so unique to the person utilizing it.
i’m passionate about organization.
i used to spend hours and hours and hours and hours and hours throughout my years of teaching, organizing and re-organizing my classroom. i’m not talking about re-modeling every day. i’m talking about refining what already is. making it better and better. clearer and clearer. you know why? because as i’ve said before a teacher once taught me that rules set you free. the more my students and my teaching team knew where things were in the classroom the better we could all function. what does function mean? it means knowing where the pencils go. not just because there’s a spot that people just “know” about, but because there’s a label with a picture for those who can’t read yet, there’s a label with a word for those who already can and to help those who can’t learn. and then built in is a system of accountability and “shalom bayis” peace in the home. you can help one another out when looking for a pencil because the power of knowing where things are is not reserved for the adults-it’s distributed equally. everyone knows. and if the bin moves (or someone let’s say accidentally misplaces it) we know right away that something is not right-the label for pencils is on the shelf but the bin of pencils is not there. where did it go? class announcement-does anyone see the bin? we need it for writing, we need it for art, we need it for creative work later at choice time. everyone looks-where’s the bin that’s labeled with a picture and a word “pencils” it’s supposed to be over there by the identical label on the shelf. Oh! Someone put it with the colored pencils-oops, “it was an accident, sorry!” they apologize and a student moves it from the spot that everyone now knows if they didn’t before is in fact the wrong spot-because there are labels. there’s no arguing over who was right or not. it was a mistake and we know this because we have the labels which tell us. we all have power in knowing. we all feel empowered and can be accountable because we see the picture or read the label and each child is a little more independent because of it.
can you imagine how that feels for a 6 year old? a 5 year old? a 4 year old? a 3 year old? What about a 2 year old or 1 year old?
It can be done.
we can structure and organize our homes and our lives with parameters and guidelines. if they want to make choices later on to say they disagree with said guidelines that’s ok. but they wouldn’t have the capacity to do so if they didn’t have guidelines that they started with in the first place.
it is our job to give them structure-even water follows structure when it is held in a vessel. think about how productive water can be when it’s held structurally. and how destructive it can be when left to its own devices and creates floods. this analogy can go in many directions-but regardless-if we use our tools wisely we can achieve great things-plant seeds and help them grow.
read as : empower our children and prepare them for life.
