Tamara
hancock
author/
mom-trepreneur
What I Learned From A Bag Of
Candy...
I have to admit, I?m a little obsessive
compulsive. As long as I can
remember it?s been impossible for me to eat a bag of Skittles without first
dumping the contents onto a table and sorting them by color. I?d then order the stacks of brightly
colored candy from the smallest amount to the largest amount. Finally, I could enjoy my treat ?
starting with the biggest pile and working my way down. Eating Skittles for me has never been an
out-of-the-bag or on-the-run treat.
One day, while sorting my snack, I became mesmerized by the colors. You see, each bag of Skittles has five individual colors. I started to think?I have five kids. Five colors, five kids. The idea was brilliant ? or at least I thought it was, at first the family thought I was nuts.
So, what was my
brilliant plan? You can imagine
that it?s difficult to keep up on the household chores, laundry, dishes, etc
when you have such a large family.
It can be done, but most large families have systems in place to help
increase the efficiency of the home.
We had not yet put anything like this into place, so it seemed our family
was always running to keep up with our own clutter. My Skittles had given me the plan I
needed. I called all the children
together and asked each of them what their favorite color was. I heard back, pink, blue, red, purple
and for the baby we decided her favorite color was yellow (she has a blanket
that?s yellow). 
With our colors decided we went to work. I purchased some very inexpensive ribbon at Wal-Mart (.99 a spool) in each of the colors. I found some great wicker baskets on Christmas clearance at Target. We then tied a ribbon to the handle of each basket ? identifying it to each child. Our color coding didn?t stop there. Each child has a bath towel in their color (easy to identify which child left it on the floor after their bath), each child has their own cereal bowl and cup (I found these at www.kidsmartliving.com very inexpensively), and each child has a cubby with their colored basket in it for their afterschool storage. Everything in our home is attached to a color code somehow. And you wouldn?t believe how proud they are of their baskets, towels, cups, bowls, and cubbies. In addition to learning their colors, they are learning to be responsible, considerate of others, and are proud of the fact that they are able to help around the house without having to be helped.
We use our color coding system to organize our days as well. We have a simple white board calendar with marker system; each child has their own marker - in their color of course. At a glance we can see who is doing what on which day. We also use colors in folding our socks by placing a small dot of color on the bottom of the sock in permanent marker. Finally, we use color coded hangers for the hang-up clothes in the closet.
We find new ways every day to use our color system. It has helped our home run more efficiently, become more organized, and has opened up more time for us to enjoy each other as a family ? rather than spending time cleaning up messes that never seemed to end. Our color system has worked so well, I even use it in my office, my email account, and my day planner. All of this from one simple little bag of candy.
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