Start where the child lives. Help your child organize clothing in the dresser and closets. Together fold and separate clothing by category and label the drawers. Socks, underwear and pajamas in the top drawer, shirts in the middle and pants in the bottom drawer. Shoes will be on the bottom shelf in the closet and button-down shirts in the front section of hanging clothes, pants in the middle and jackets in the back. Toys will be divided into categories and placed on labeled shelves as well. Have a time each day for children to straighten the room. Teach children to lay out the clothing for the next day before bedtime.
Most schools use binders to organize a student's school work. Help maintain that binder by making sure pockets are labeled and dividers are used. Go through the binder together each day and make sure students share any work that is due, or papers that need to be signed each day after school. Students should be sorting out their papers into logical sections. Expand on the idea of sorting and filing papers by having a filing system at home, too. Have a place for children to place graded papers, another area for notes from school and show children how you divide paperwork such as bills, correspondence and even coupons.
Help children understand how to look at the calendar and plan for the upcoming week and month. Purchase a large write-on/wipe-off calendar for home. Together once a week go over the family schedule, writing in meetings, practices, play dates or birthdays. Write up a typical daily schedule with your child and help him understand how much time they have for different tasks or pastimes in their day. Get your child an alarm clock and have the child be responsible for setting and getting up to the alarm each day. Discuss how much time the child needs in the morning during school days to get ready.
Sharing in the cooking chores at home will also help sharpen a child's organizational skills. Ingredients must be gathered, directions followed, measuring done and different dishes must be timed to cook so that everything will be ready at the same time. Also teach your child how to organize and sort other things such as photos and then let them place them in albums in logical methods such as in chronological order or by themes such as birthdays or holidays. Also, teach your child how to break larger tasks into smaller ones by doing some long-term projects together such as building a tree house, or putting together a swing set.