9 Ways to Assist your Child in Organizing their School Life

Since school has started I thought parents could benefit from this.

If you could get your child to remember where they put things, life would be easier. There would be less tears and frustration. So let's begin our organizing quest.

1. Have a spot near your front door or in your child's room where their school backpack needs to be. Once homework is done, it's to go directly inside their backpack unless you need to check it first. If you have a forgetful child or a highly distracted one, have them double check their backpack to make sure their homework is indeed there. Make sure all books that need to go back to school are there as well. In general, double checking is good thing for all children to do. Sometimes children take out a piece of homework or a book and forget to put it back.

2. If mornings are a rush for you, you or your child can fix their lunch the night before. (Remember to refrigerate the lunch if it contains perishable foods.) Your child can also lay out the clothes they plan to wear the next day the night before.

3. Use a monthly calendar which it's only purpose is, is to show when things are due. You can X off any day when an assignment is turned in. You can have one calendar for home and a small one for school.

4. The school desk. Keep track of books by putting together books with similar themes. Such as, all library books go together, all math books go together, the history text book and work book go together, etc. If your child uses book covers use the same color for the text book and its corresponding work book to identify them. Have an organizer bag for pens and pencils. Another bag for markers. Get a separate box for the ruler, erasers, liquid eraser, etc. If everything goes in one bag or box, things won't be as easy to find. Plus, things tend to get messy being in only one container.

5. School note taking. Notes for each subject should be written down on its own piece of paper. If notes for six subjects are squeezed together on two sheets of paper it's not easy to locate what you're looking for. Plus, if each class subject has its own paper it can be easily organized in its own subject folder. Write the name of the subject on the subject folder so it can easily be found in a binder. Each subject folder can have its own color. All folders should go in a binder so they don't get lost. The homework folder should be in front, so your child remembers to turn in assignments. The daily homework assignments can be written on one paper so your child remembers to do all their homework. Do not let your child scribble their homework assignment on a small scrap of paper. If the scrap of paper is mislaid, well, they’re up a creek without a paddle unless they can get a hold of a friend to tell them about the homework. But they might forget, since the scrap of paper is gone.

6. When the teacher is giving information to be taken down your child should underline, star, or highlight key words for better reference. When writing down homework it is beneficial to underline or highlight important due dates, projects, or assignments. The following is helpful for young children who frequently lose weekly or bi-weekly homework assignment sheets. If you have a photocopier at home, or a FAX with photocopier, make a copy of the assignment sheet the day you get it. And know the day it should come home! For children who habitually forget to turn in assignments: Have them write down on two stick-its the homework that needs to be turned in the next day. Place one stick-it on the related text book or work book and the other on the front of their binder.

7. Some children are so disorganized that the use of colored tabs can really help. I remember using my own lazy girl tabs. I used random wrappers as page markers for many things, such as, quotes I wanted to use for book reports. The problem was I had no idea if it was the granola wrapper or lunch bag scrap that was meant for a certain quote. That's where stick-it tabs that you can write on come in handy. Tabs can be used for quick references. You place the back of the tab where it's sticky on book pages. They can easily mark where certain homework answers are, mark passages to refer back to, separate homework section due dates, etc. Also, a stick-it (as well as bookmarker) is a great way to quickly find where you left off reading or doing homework.

8. Does your child forget where they put their sweater or lunch box at school? Children should always try to put their lunch bag and sweater in the same spot at school so they can remember where they are. On the same peg in the closet and on the same spot on the lunch bench. But they shouldn't get upset if they can't get the same spot. If they can recall that they normally put an item to the left side or right side of an area that will help. To lessen the loss of sweaters and jackets put your child's name inside all labels. Then if a sweater is lost and someone finds it, it will be identified as your child's. As for bringing the wrong back pack and/or lunch bag home because it looks like another students do these two things: #1, Get a piece of colored string and wrap it around the handle of the lunch bag/box. For the backpack, get an identifying key chain and clip it to a zipper. #2, With a marker write your child's name inside the lunch bag and backpack so there can be no mistaking it is your child's. If you prefer not to do this, get some masking tape and write your child's name on a piece of tape and place it inside the lunch bag and backpack.

9. If your child keeps losing their lunch box you can start using lunch bags with their name on them. For parents in morning rushes: At another time quickly write your child's name on twenty lunch bags. By doing this you will have one less thing that you need to remember to do. If you're tired of lost school books write your child's name in them. But only if you're allowed. If you can’t do this, make or buy a book cover for each book. (To cheaply make book covers use paper grocery bags. Remember to use the inside of the bag as the outside of the book cover.) Put your child's name on the book cover. This will identify the book as your child's. Plus, it will keep the book clean. The following is a great idea for school library books which seem to mysteriously get mislaid. Buy or make bookmarkers, then write your child's name on them. Your child should use one as they read. At least then if the book gets lost someone might see the bookmarker and return the book to your child.