Hands-On Activities on Organizational Skills for Teens

Prep Activities

• KidsHealth suggests that your child gather together, or prepare, everything that he needs in order to get organized for an activity. Whether he's about to go to school for the day, leaving for a night out with friends or starting a mega-sized homework assignment, prepping is a key activity that can help your teen to organize everything he will need. For example, instead of just grabbing his backpack and going in the morning, set aside time the night before -- or extra-early in the a.m. -- for him to make a mental list of what he needs. If the mental list isn't something that he can remember or use, try an actual pen and paper list instead. Without rushing, have him check -- and double check -- that everything on his list is in his backpack.

Shopping

• While your teen may still seem like your little baby, before you know it, she will be well on her way to adulthood. Moving out of the house, going to college or getting an apartment as a young adult will require your teen to take care of herself. Instead of always having Mom there to do the grocery shopping and keep the house stocked with self-care items, your teen will soon need to do this for herself. Set up a hands-on organizational activity to help her prepare for this by letting her prepare for and do the household shopping for you. For example, if it's grocery shopping day, ask her to take stock of what's in the fridge and what's needed. have her make a list, organizing it by meals or types of foods. Give her enough cash -- and coupons, if you use them -- to pay for the food and send her to the grocery store. When she comes home, have her unpack the groceries and organize them by putting them away in the appropriate places.

Money

• Managing money is an essential organizational task that all young adults should master. Your teen can get some hands-on experience with money management when he does chores for an allowance or through an after-school job. The American Academy of Pediatrics, on its Healthy Children website, recommends that parents have their teens create a year-long budget. This can show them how to organize their finances in order to plan ahead. For example, your teen can include how much he wants to spend on weekly entertainment -- such as going to the movies with friends -- snack money and funds that he will need for clothing items. He can compare this to what he makes at his part-time job, along with what you give him, to keep himself organized and on track.

Bedroom Organization

• Instead of giving up on your teen's ever-messy bedroom, help her to organize it with a hands-on cleaning activity. Provide her with the basic elements that she will need for organization such as dressers, shelving units or storage tubs. Have her gather together everything that she doesn't use and decide what to do with it. She can donate clothes that she doesn't wear anymore to a charity or hand them down to a younger relative. Old school papers, magazines and other similar items can go in a recycling bin. Help your teen to come up with a way to organize the items that she is keeping. For example, she can put her current season's clothes in her dressers and the ones that she isn't wearing now in plastic tubs that fit under her bed or in the closet.