Hi! We are Jarrett, Janae and Jolene Carter. We like to help other kids with their organizing and time management skills. We are still learning but we did help our mom write 500 Ways To Organize Your Child ., but by far the best book is A Kid's Guide To Organizing which we wrote ourselves! We each wrote different chapters and all of us helped write the tips in the book. We got the idea because our friend Brandon said there was no organizing books made just for kids. He thought our mom's books were too complicated for kids.

We like to answer questions from other kids. If you send us a question we will answer you on the web. We have some very cool ideas so write us.

Our mom and dad (and other adults who love us) check our email first to make sure no adults write us. Mom tells us that she is particularly looking for email that might really be from adults pretending to be kids. She has a way of checking and will promptly report any inappropriate email. So kids only please!

Email kids@momtime.net We will usually respond in a day or so if we have done our schoolwork and our chores. Dad and mom are pretty strict about that. Send us your questions, comments and your kid organizing ideas.

We will be writing tips and sharing ideas monthly. Our book A Kid's Guide To Organizing is great! We hope you want to get it. Ask your mom or dad first. We need to sell the first printing to prove that kids can be organized too! Right now we are selling them just on mom's website but we would like to eventually get our own website. So help us out by telling your friends about us. You can buy them at my mom' and dad's seminars too.

SUMMER EDITION
July/August 2003

The Purpose of a Room 2

Summary: This article will focus on setting the purpose of a bedroom and keeping that purpose, the bedroom is one of the hardest rooms to master its purpose and maintain it. This article is a sequel to the May-June newsletter entitled “The Purpose of a Room 1.”

Finally, school is out for the summer! Just when you thought you didn’t want to see another textbook again. But now you are going to be in your room during the day. I mean, wasn’t it easy to hide your mess during the school year? Well now you have more time to clean it, but who wants to spend their whole summer cleaning? Not me.

Having said all that, you need some type of starting point. Okay, let’s explore the purpose of your room like we did last month. Your paper should look like this:

The problem is that unlike a kitchen it is harder to even out the purposes into a lot of rooms in the house….except for things like homework, playing, and going on the computer. So you need to have boxes in your room for certain things. Now look at what you have on the floor, maybe you should make a textbook box if you always see textbooks lying around. This always helps you maintain your purpose. This way your room is less likely to get as messy.

Now I will leave you with some tips to have fun and still get the most out of your summer:

• Make up some goals, since its summer you will have more time to accomplish them and it will make your summer more productive. The more goals you have the more you’ll accomplish. Of course, don’t make too many goals or you will stress yourself.
  
  
• Get up early and have some time by yourself you can enjoy your summer more that way. You have the choice of praying, reading or just thinking with no one to bother you. I like just sitting enjoying the quietness.
  
  
• Make sure you get some relaxed time or quiet time everyday. That way you don’t get tired easily.
  
  
• Make yourself a morning checklist for you to follow in the morning to help you move faster in the morning so can get more out your day. See Worksheet A in our book.
  
  
• In the summer you will have lots of activities so keep your bags for your activities such as swimming, church, etc. Keep these bags packed and only use them for that activity. Do not use your swimming bag for church, etc.
  
  
• Write out a plan for a perfect day. Most of us plan our days in our heads, but we should get into the practice of writing it down. Also write down some things you really want to do.
  
  
• Put your favorite music in your music player and dance while you clean your room or do your chores. It will help you to move faster.
  
  
  
• Pray for your day. Pray for your friends, babysitter, family and anyone who will be around you that day.
  
  
• Ask your family to get a calendar so you can see what everyone is doing this summer, including you!
  
  
• Try to do as many things out the house.
  
  
• Make a television schedule of the shows you like to watch so you don’t watch too much television. Turn the television off as soon as your show goes off.
  
  
• Make a special bag to take with you when your mom or dad is shopping or keeps you waiting someplace. Put in your bag a notebook, to catch your ideas, drawing paper, favorite books and some small handheld games. You will have something to do while you wait. Keep this bag packed at all times. Trust us you’ll need it!
  
  
• Never sit down and watch television. Exercise while you watch your favorite television show. We like to take turns jogging in place or bouncing on our mini-trampoline.

Enjoy your summer!

©Copyright June 2003, By Jarrett G. Carter. No part of this article may be used in any form without written permission from Jarrett G. Carter. For written permission, please contact Jarrett G. Carter at Kids@Momtime.net.

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